No. 

LIBRARY    OF 

Rev.  J.  G.  Monf  Oft,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Seventy-Five  Years. 


ANNIVERSARY  PROCEEDINGS 


FOUNDING 


Presbyterian  Church 


KINGSTON,    INDIANA 


HELD  IN  THE  CHURCH  EDIFICE 


DECEMBER   17TH  AND   18TH,   i^ 


ALSO  PORTRAITS  OF  FORMER  AND  PRESENT  PASTORS: 

EXTERIOR  AND  INTERIOR  VIEWS  OF  THE 

CHURCH  EDIFICE,  ETC. 


INDIANAPOLIS 

INDIANAPOLIS  PRINTING  CO. 


V 


INTRODUCTION. 


Jubilee  exercises  commemorative  of  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the 
founding  of  Kingston  Church  were  held  in  the  Kingston  Presbyterian 
Church  December  17th  and  i8th,  189S 

Rev.  Bartlett,  pastor  of  the  church,  presiding,  ex-ministers  of  the  church 
present,  Rev.  Dr.  Rankin,  of  Bngham,  Utah,  and  Rev.  Harry  Nyce,  of  Peru, 
Ind.  Exercises  were  opened  by  the  singing  of  Coronation  by  the  audience, 
followed  by  prayer  by  Dr.  Rankin.  After  a  short  introductory  talk  by  the 
Rev.  Bartlett,  the  roll  of  the  original  members  of  the  church  was  read  from 
the  old  session  book  by  J  B.  Hopkins,  present  clerk  of  the  session  ;  Mr  J. 
B.  Robinson  then  spoke  upon  "The  Fathers  of  the  Church,"  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  J.  G.  Donnell,  whose  subject  was  "  The  Early  History  of  the 
Sabbath  School."  Mrs.  M.  C.  Jensen  then  sang  an  alto  solo,  entitled  "  The 
New  Kingdom,"  after  which  Dr.  Rankin  addressed  the  audience  from  the 
subject  "My  Thirty  Years'  Pastorate."  Letters  were  then  read  by  Rev. 
Bartlett  from  Rev.  John  C.  King  and  Rev.  H.  M.  Schockley,  former  pastors 
of  the  church  ;  also  from  Rev.  G.  D.  Parker,  Rev.  Ben.  Nyce,  Mrs.  N.  H. 
Adams,  Mrs.  M.  A.  Hamilton  and  Mrs.  Zerelda  Lawson,  after  which  an 
adjournment  was  taken  and  dinner  served  in  the  basement  by  the  ladies  of 
the  church. 

Promptly  at  2:00  p.  m  the  audience  was  called  to  order  by  Rev.  Bartlett, 
and  after  a  musical  selection  by  the  Clarksburg  Presbyterian  choir,  extempore 
addresses  were  given  by  Revs.  Van  Buskirk,  Parker  and  Murphy,  of  Greens- 
burg,  Rev.  Stewart,  of  Spring  Hill,  and  Rev.  Adams,  of  St.  Paul,  Minn.  This 
was  followed  by  the  history  of  the  church  by  Miss  Camilla  Donnell.  Mrs. 
Ada  Stewart  read  a  paper  entitled  "  Our  Preachers  and  Missionaries  "  After 
another  selection  by  the  Clarksburg  choir,  Rev.  Bartlett  read  a  paper  en- 
titled "  The  Church  ot  To-day,"  and  was  followed  by  Rev.  Harry  Nyce,  who 
delivered  the  concluding  address,  from  the  text  "Thou  Hast  Kept  the  Good 
Wine  Until  Now." 

The  following  pages  record  for  the  most  part  such  exercises.  With  this 
brief  introduction  the  Committee  submits  the  work  voluntarily  assumed  by  it. 

R.  A.  BARTLETT, 
MISS  CAMILLA  DONNELL, 
J.  (J.  DONNELL, 
ORLANDO  HAMILTON. 


REV.  S.  G.  LOWRY. 


ANNIVERSARY  EXERCISES. 


SATURDAY,  JANUARY  17,  1898. 


At  the  opening  of  the  exercises,  10:30  a.  m.,  the  auditorium  was  well 
filled.  The  interior  of  the  church  had  been  beautifully  decorated  b}"  the 
Committee.  An  arch  of  holly  and  mistletoe,  containing  the  words 
"  Seventy-fifth  Anniversary,"  was  placed  on  the  platform.  Festoons  of  rare 
beauty  were  suspended.  Pictures  of  two  of  the  honored  ancestors  were 
placed  on  easels  near  the  pulpit.  Rev.  R.  A.  Bartlett,  pastor,  conducted  the 
opening  exercises.     After  the  opening  song,  the  pastor  spoke  as  follows  : 

"  I  wish  to  extend  to  all  of  you  a  very  cordial  welcome.  While  it  is  cold 
without,  we  trust  you  will  not  find  our  hearts  cold.  There  is  no  ice  in  our 
greeting.  Most  gladly  do  we  welcome  you  to  this  quiet  country  side,  where 
for  seventy-five  }ears  this  church  has  stood,  leading  to  Christ  and  blessing 
those  who  have  passed  through  her  doors.  We  are  here  to  celebrate  our 
seventy-fifth  anniversary,  and  we  ask  you  with  heart  and  soul  to  do  all  you 
can  to  make  the  exercises  helpful  to  all. 

"  We  are  honored  in  having  with  us  two  of  the  former  pastors  of  this 
church,  who,  by  their  presence  and  voice  will  do  much  to  make  this  occasion 
enjoyable  and  uplifting. 

"  We  cordially  greet  the  former  members  of  this  church,  and  friends  from 
neighboring  churches.  It  is  our  desire  not  only  to  make  this  diamond 
jubilee  a  season  of  joy  and  feasting,  but  also  a  time  of  instruction  and  spirit- 
ual good  to  every  one  present.  We  want  evc-^yone  to  feel  pertectly  at  home, 
and  not  be  embarrassed  because  of  the  clergymen  present.  They  are  fallible 
creatures.  I  have  some  good  jokes  on  all  of  them,  but  I  haven't  time  to 
tell  them.  I  will  give  this  one  on  Brother  Nyce.  I  heard  he  was  persuaded 
once  to  buy  some  hogs.  Preachers  are  sometimes  led  astray  in  this  direction. 
As  soon  as  they  were  driven  into  the  barn  yard  he  climbed  up  into  the  mow 
and  threw  down  a  lot  of  hay  for  them.  The  hogs  simply  smelled  it  '  Pshaw,' 
said  the  di.'-gu.sted  parson,  'these  hogs  won't  eat  anyihing  1  ' 

"  It  is  my  desire  that  this  shall  be  the  time  when  we  shall  become  more 
earnest  in  the  cause  of  the  Master.  Perils  surround  us  —  drink,  JNIormonism, 
greed,  the  disturbed  relations  of  capital  and  labor,  and  other  things  sug- 
gestive of  dynamite  and  bombs.  There  has  never  been  a  louder  call  for  a 
consecrated  church  than  to-day.  I  want  to  greet  the  boys  and  girls,  and  tell 
them  how  glad  I  am  to  see  them  here.  The  hope  of  this  church  is  in  you. 
You  are  to  take  the  places  of  your  fathers  and  mothers  soon  We  want  you 
to  enjoy  yourselves  and  feel  this  is  your  church.  As  we  all  rejoice  to-day, 
let  us  thank  God,  and  take  new  courage  for  the  future." 

The  roll-call  of  the  original  members  of  the  church  was  read  by  J.  B. 
Hopkins,  clerk  of  session,  and  elicited  great  interest. 


-5— 

Mr.  J.  B.  Robison  then  spoke  on  "  Fathers  of  the  Church."  From  Mr. 
Robison's  extended  knowledge  of  the  original  supporters  of  the  church,  he 
was  able  to  make  an  interesting  and  forcible  presentation  of  the  subject. 
The  people  were  led  to  see,  perhaps  as  never  before,  how  much  they  were 
indebted  to  the  noble  men  of  the  past. 

Then  followed  J.  G.  Donnell's  address  on  "The  Early  History  of  the 
Sabbath  School."  His  talk  was  well  received  and  highly  appreciated  by  the 
audience. 

Mrs.  Jensen  sang  very  sweetly  the  solo,  "  The  New  Kingdom."    ■ 

Dr.  Rankin's  address  on  "  Thirty  Years'  Pastorate  "  followed.  He  said 
in  part : 

"  From  a  thirty  years'  pastorate,  I  have  learne  1  to  value  the  individual 
church.  It  would  be  difficult  to  put  too  high  an  estimate  upon  the  worth  of 
this  church  in  the  community  in  which  it  has  grown  ;  to  the  county  ;  to  the 
State  of  Indiana  ;  to  our  country,  and  to  the  world. 

"  Few  communities,  if  any,  surpass  this  in  those  things  that  a  Christian 
civilization  and  gospel  thrift  bring  to  men.  '  Not  slothful  in  business  '  has 
been  emphasized,  with  the  fervent  spirit,  in  serving  the  Lord.  The  vices  of 
irreligion  robbed  other  people  of  far  more  than  the  support  of  the  church  here 
has  cost.  And  the  contrast  between  this  and  many  other  places  may  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  difference  in  the  influence  of  the  local  church. 

"  The  churches,  as  centers  of  influence  promoting  religion,  morality  and 
good  citizenship,  ia  Greensburg,  Forest  Hill,  Union  and  Sardinia,  reaching 
to  the  soutwestern  corner  of  the  county,  and  Clarksburg  and  Memorial  to  the 
northeastern  corner,  are  the  children  and  grandchildren  of  this  organization. 
Granting  all  that  other  denominations  have  done,  and  thankful  therefor,  it 
still  would  be  grand  larceny  to  rob  Decatur  county  of  this  chain  of  frugal 
thrift  and  Christian  living  that  might  well  be  portrayed  upon  the  map  by  a 
band  of  light.  It  would  be  hard  to  conceive  what  would  have  been  the  con- 
dition of  this  county  had  the  early  settlers  here  not  '  associated  themselves 
together  as  a  church.' 

"  They  had  learned  to  value  the  influence  of  the  local  church,  and  when 
the  log  meeting  house  was  raised  to  the  square  with  tne  canopy  of  heaven  for 
the  roof,  the  black  earth  for  the  floor  and  the  sleepers  for  pews,  they  sent 
Elder  John  McCoy  to  New  Richmond,  Ohio,  to  bring  a  pastor,  Rev.  Samuel 
G.  Lowry,  and  his  family.  They  arrived  Saturday  night,  having  made  the 
journey  in  a  two-horse  farm  wagon-  Nevertheless,  on  Sunday  he  preached 
from  the  text  '  Therefore  came  I  unto  you  without  gainsaying,  as  soon  as  I 
was  sent  for.  I  ask,  therefore,  for  what  intent  ye  have  sent  for  me? '  The 
history  of  the  church  answers  the  question.  They  sent  for  him  for  the  good 
of  the  community,  the  country,  the  State,  the  county,  and  the  world. 

"  I  have  spoken  of  the  good  to  the  community  and  county.  But  now, 
see  the  blessings  that  came  to  the  State.  In  that  log  meeting-house  Hanover 
College  was  organized,  and  the  pastor  of  this  church  was  a  trustee  ;  from  here 
they  got  Harrison  Thomson,  who  filled  a  chair  so  many  years  in  the  faculty  ; 
a  daughter  of  this  one  whose  picture  is  upon  my  left  endowed  a  professorship 
to  commemorate  the  name  of  her  mother.  The  same,  being  a  daughter-in- 
law  to  him  whose  picture  is  upon  my  right,  finis  led  and  furnished  Donnell 
chape'    in   memory  of  her  husband.     Your  pastor  was  one  of  the  trio  that 


-6- 

dedicated  it,  and  this  aged  gentleman  before  me  was  present  and  gave  them 
|i,ooo  in  memory  of  the  time  when  he  and  Harrison  Thomson  hoed  corn 
together  —  barefoot  boys. 

"  What  would  Indiana,  or  the  United  States,  or  the  world  have  been 
without  Hanover?     And  what  would  Hanover  have  bet-n  without  Kingston  ? 

"The  most  vivid  imagination  could  not  pictur  -  the  condition  of  things 
to-day  with  these  factors  left  out.  Kingston  furnished  Bloomington  a  pro- 
fessor, and  the  Louisville  Courier  Journal  its  greatest  editor.  Your  first 
pastor  held  the  stake  Carnahan  drove  to  mark  the  place  where  Wabash  C'd- 
lege  was  built,  and  that  Thomson  who  managed  its  finances  so  admirably 
for  many  years  professed  faith  in  Chri«;t  here.  Rev.  B.  M.  Nyce, 
another  of  your  pastors,  a  born  educator,  laid  the  found  \t  on  for  Professor 
Campbell's  success  Campbell  was  father  of  the  centennial  at  Philadelphia 
in  1876,  which  was  the  forerunner  of  the  great  Chicago  exposition  and  the 
lesser  one  at  Omaha.  How  far-reaching  the  influence  and  how  great  the 
value  of  the  church  organized  in  a  log  cabin  home  seventy-five  years  ago  ! 
Can  you  think  of  Indiana  without  Wabash  College  as  a  factor  in  achieving 
her  greatness,  or  our  public  schools  without  the  formative  work  of  Professor 
Mills? 

"  To  measure  the  worth  of  this  church,  there  must  be  a  recalling  of  the 
Christian  families  gone  to  other  parts  of  our  land.  You  could  start  at  Greater 
New  York  and  travel  to  San  Francisco  and  stop  every  night  with  one  such. 

*'  Her  membership  has  gone  beyond  the  oceans  to  the  dark  continent  of 
Africa  ;  to  Asia  and  to  the  islands  of  the  sea.  The  joy  of  the  whole  earth 
was  Mount  Zion,  and  in  entailing  this  church  upon  you  younger  people  a 
goodly  heritage  is  left  for  you  to  develop  ;  and  as  this  beautiful  building 
which  is  to  be  rededicated  to-morrow  surpasses  any  of  the  five  churches 
built  here  before  it,  so  it  should  be  your  Christian  ambition  to  make  the 
church  worshiping  within  these  walls  surpass  in  beauty  of  holiness  that  which 
has  preceded  it.  The  church  of  seventy-five  years  to  come  should  do  more 
th  n  the  church  of  seventy-five  years  gone." 

After  reading  of  some  letters,  extracts  from  which  are  given  in  this 
pamphlet,  adjournment  was  made  to  the  basement  of  the  church,  where 
dinner  was  .served.  Over  300  people  sat  down  to  the  tables.  Mrs.  Chester 
Hamilton  was  chairman  of  the  Entertainment  Committee.  The  dinner  was 
a  bountiful  one,  tastefully  served  from  prettily  decorated  tables.  All  the 
ladies  doing  their  utmost  to  aid,  made  it  n  "  royal  feast"  indeed. 

At  2:00  o'clock  the  audience  was  called  to  order  by  the  pastor.  The 
Clarksburg  Presbyterian  choir  sang  a  very  beautiful  selection.  The  pastor, 
in  introducing  the  singers,  stated  they  had  never  been  known  to  quarrel. 
Rev.  Van  Buskirk,  pastor  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Greensburg,  arose  to 
his  feet  and  remarked  that  a  picture  of  that  choir  ought  to  be  made  and 
placed  in  the  souvenir  pamphlet 

Extemporaneous  addresses  were  then  made  by  Revs.  Van  Buskirk,  Parker 
and  Murphy,  of  Greensburg  ;  Rev.  Stewart,  of  Spring  Hill,  and  Rev.  Adams, 
of  St.  Paul,  Minn.  The  spicy  remarks  of  these  brethren  called  forth  rounds 
of  applause. 


REV.  JOHN  WEAVER. 


Miss  Camilla  Donnell  read  an  excellent  paper, 

HISTORY  OF  THE  KINGSTON  CHURCH. 

"  It  was  the  wise  and  witty  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  who  said  that 
'  To  treat  a  disease  in  time,  you  must  often  go  as  far  back  as  a  man's  grand- 
father.' So,  to  fully  understand  this  church,  we  must  trace  it  back  to  its 
origin  in  the  old  Concord  church  in  Bourbon  county,  Kentucky.  The  an- 
cestry of  all  the  pioneer  fathers  of  the  church  was  practically  the  same.  Of 
Scotch  Irish  descent,  and  therefore,  as  one  of  them  quaintly  says,  '  Presby- 
terian as  far  back  as  we  have  any  record.'  They  emigrated  from  western 
Pennsylvania  to  Kentucky  with  their  parents  from  1784  to  1790,  where  in 
1792  they  founded  Concord  Presbyterian  church. 

"  In  1817  Rev.  John  Rankin,  the  noted  divine  and  abolition  leader,  be- 
came their  minister.  He  records  that  in  this  church  of  over  200  members, 
in  a  slave  State,  there  was  but  one  slave-holder.  He  found  in  it  an  active 
society  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Some  of  its  more  prominent  members 
held  meetings,  circulated  books  and  tracts  against  slavery,  and  so  far  as  they 
had  means,  carried  on  suits  in  behalf  of  such  slaves  as  were  held  contrary  to 
law.  Such  a  community  could  have  no  true  home  in  a  slave  State.  From 
1821  to  1S23  a  number  of  families  emigrated  to  the  then  new  State  of  Indiana, 
and  located  in  the  bounds  of  what  is  now  the  Kings' on  neighborhood.  Our 
ancestors  have  left  us  few  written  memorials  of  those  days.  The  little  old 
session  book,  yellow  with  age,  yet  well  preserved,  and  written  for  the  most 
part  in  the  clear,  old-fashioned  handwriting  of  Samuel  Donnell,  the  first 
clerk  of  sesson,  and  kept  with  a  methodical  accuracy  that  might  have  served 
as  a  model  for  later  generations,  is  the  most  interesting  relic  of  that  early 
period.  The  first  record  is  dated  simply  December,  1S23,  leaving  blank  the 
name  of  the  day  of  the  week  and  month.  The  day  we  celebrate,  December 
i8th,  appears  to  have  been  fixed  upon  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary,  by  the 
rather  uncertain  recollection  of  survivors.  The  place  of  meeting  was  near 
Carmel  church,  on  a  farm  forming  part  of  that  now  owned  by  Mrs.  Wesley 
Throp.  In  the  session  book,  the  only  contemporaneous  record,  it  is  described 
as  the  house  of  Samuel  D.  Henry,  but  was  better  remembered  afterward  as 
the  home  of  his  father,  William  Henry,  one  of  the  most  honored  elders  of 
the  old  Concord  church,  but  never  a  member  of  this  church,  he  having 
died  before  its  complete  organization.  The  record  proceeds,  'This  day, 
agreeable  to  previous  notice,  a  number  of  persons,  who  had  formerly  been 
members  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  came  forward  after  sermon  by  the  Rev. 
John  Moreland  and  associated  themselves  together  as  a  Presbyterian  church, 
to  be  denominated  Sand  Creek  church,  and  proceeded  to  choose  Samuel 
Donnell,  John  Hopkins,  John  C.  McCoy  and  William  O  Ross  to  the  office  of 
ruling  elder.'  Rev.  John  Moreland,  who  organized  the  church,  was  a  well 
known  minister  in  Kentucky,  and  is  still  dimly  remembered  by  some  of  the 
older  people  as  afterward  visiting  and  preaching  to  the  church 

"Samuel  Donnell  and  John  Hopkins  were  both  past  middle  life.  Both 
had  been  leaders  and  ruling  elders  in  the  church  in  Kentucky.  Both  were 
for  that  time  well  educated  and  thoroughly  versed  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
church,  and  were  able  theologians.  Both  were  men  of  unusual  ability  and 
force  of  character,  and  differing  as  they  did  on  public  questions,  they  after- 
ward became  leaders  in  opposite  factions  in  the  church.  William  O.  Ross 
lived  near  Greensburg,  and   united  with  the  churcti  oT  that  place  on  its 


-9— 


organization.     Uncle   John    McCoy  survived  all   his  first  colleagues  many 
years  and  is  still  affectionately  remembered  by  the  present  generation.     No 
other  minister  seems  to  have  visited  the  infant  church  until  September  4th 
and  5th  of  the  following  year,  1824.     Rev.  John   Dickey,  an  able  pioneer 
preacher  well  remembered  and  greatly  beloved  by  all  the  older  people,  held 
a  two-days'  meeting  at  the  home  of  Cyrus  Hamilton.     He  ordained  John 
McCoy  and  William  O.  Ross  to  the  office  of  ruling  elder,  and  installed  Sam- 
uel Donnell  and  John  Hopkins,  who  had  been  previously  ordained.     The 
session  then  held  its  first  regular  meeting,  and  the  fifty  persons  whose  names 
were  read  this  morning,  having,  as  the  record  says,  '  presented  letters  or  other 
satisfactory  evidence  of   membership  in  other  churches,  were  received  as 
members  of  the  Sand  Creek  church. '    It  is  now  seventeen  years  since  the  last 
survivor  of  these  charter  members,  Mrs.  Cyrus  Hamilton,  was  laid  to  rest  in 
the  Kingston  cemetery.     Only  two  persons  are  living  who  were  present  and 
were  old  enough  to  have  remembered  this  meeting,  Mr.  Marshall  Hamilton, 
now  eighty-seven,  and  Mrs.   Minerva  Donnell,  nearly  eighty-two.     Of  the 
young  children  who  were  carried  there  in  the  arms  of  their  parents,  six  still 
survive -Robert  A.    Hamilton,  William   M.  Hamilton,   Orville  Thomson, 
Mrs    Polly  Ann  Jones,  Mrs.   Margaret  Miller  and  Mrs.  Warder  Hamilton. 
Of  these  eight  survivors,  five  are  descendants  of  Mrs.  Mary  Edward  Hamil- 
ton.    All  of  the  eight  are  residents  of  this  county,  and  all  save  Mrs   Miller 
and  Mrs   Hamilton  are  present  at  this  meeting.    Of  the  eleven  children  pre- 
sented for  baptism  at  this  time,  the  following  are  familiar  names  :     John 
Hopkins  Donnell,   Margaret  Jane  Donnell,  Orion  Wallace  Donnell,   Katy 
Jane  Hopkins,  Margaret  Mitchell  Hamilton,  Harriet  Newel  Hamilton  and 
Angelina  Antrobus.     On  August  27th  and  28th,  1825,  nearly  a  year  later. 
FHiher  Dickey  again  visited  the  church,  and  again  held  a  two-days'  meeting 
at  the  home  of  Cyrus  Hamilton. 

"It  is  surely  not  amiss  to  offer  a  tribute  to  the  early  mothers  of  the 
church,  who  joyfully  entertained  the  home  missionary  in  their  one  and  two- 
roomed  cabins,  cooked  on  their  open  fireplaces  the  best  they  could  set  before 
him,  and  opened  their  doors  to  the  entire  congregation  for  meeting.  At  this 
time  the  session  received  the  first  members  on  profession  of  their  faith.  They 
were  Cyrus  Hamilton,  Samuel  Hamilton,  Benjamin  Antrobus  and  Mrs.  Mar- 
tha Mars.  Although  preaching  services  were  held  but  once  a  year,  as  we  have 
seen  from  1823  to  1826,  prayer-meeting  and  Bible  examination  by  the  elders 
was  kept  up  on  Sundays.  On  June  3d,  1826,  Rev.  S.  G.  Lowry  visited  and 
preached  to  the  church,  and  at  this  meeting  an  order  from  Presbytery  was 
read  granting  leave  to  a  number  of  members,  twelve  in  all,  to  be  stricken  off 
and  organized  into  a  church  at  Greensburg.  August  following  the  congre- 
gation met  to  choose  a  minister,  and  Rev.  S.  G.  Lowry,  who  was  already 
supplying  the  church,  was  duly  chosen  by  unanimous  vote,  and  was  installed 
November  8th  by  Madison  Presbytery. 

"Rev  Mr.  Lowry  and  his  wife,  Almira  Lowry,  who  was  a  member  of 
the  Thomson  family,  were  greatly  beloved  by  the  congregation,  as  the  frequent 
recurrence  of  both  their  names  on  the  baptismal  register  shows.  It  also  sug- 
gests taken  with  the  meager  salary  he  received,  the  explanatioa  offered  by 
one  of  these  witty  namesakes,  that  the  people  of  those  early  days  paid  their 
preacher  by  naming  their  children  after  him.  Mrs.  Lowry  died  in  182S,  and 
her  grave  was  the  first  in  the  unfenced,  new  graveyard.    In  the  summer  and 


—10— 

fall  of  1828  Mr.  Lowry  had  very  successful  revival  meetings,  and  gathered 
into  the  church,  besides  the  older  persons  received  by  letter,  about  thirty-five 
young  people,  who  for  many  years  were  the  pillars  of  the  church.  These  are 
some  of  the  familiar  names  :  James  Hamilton,  Luther  Donnell,  John  Thom- 
son, John  R.  Donnell,  Angus  C.  McCoy,  Sally  Hamilton,  Alexander  Thom- 
son, Harvey  Antrobus,  Thomas  Hamilton  Antrobus,  Marshall  Hamilton, 
Jam  s  Ardery,  Jane  Braden,  Samuel  Addison  Donnell,  Polly  Robison,  John 
C.  Donnell,  Elisa  Jane  Hopkins,  Elenor  Hamilton,  Olesa  Donnell. 

"John  Hopkins  and  William  O.  Ross,  having  become  members  of  the 
Greensburg  church,  an  election  was  held  September  26,  1829,  to  fill  their 
places  in  the  session.  Thomas  Hamilton,  John  Kirkpatrick  and  James  A. 
Thomson  were  duly  elected.  Thomas  Hamilton  was  at  this  time  just  thirty- 
one  years  old.  He  served  the  church  as  an  elder  fifty  years,  the  longest 
service  in  the  history  of  the  church  and  one  of  rare  benignity  and  honor. 
August  26,  1832,  we  find  this  record  :  '  On  this  day  Rev.  Samuel  G.  Lowry 
delivered  his  farewell  address  to  this  church  and  congregation.'  Mr.  Lowry 
lived  to  a  green  old  age,  and  was  present  as  the  central  and  honored  figure 
at  the  fiftieth  and  sixtieth  anniversaries  of  the  church,  whose  first  pastor  he 
had  been. 

"In  April,  1833,  Rev.  John  Weaver  began  his  ministry  in  the  church, 
and  was  installed  the  following  year  by  the  Presbytery  of  Indianapolis.  Our 
fathers  were  more  formal  in  this  matter  than  their  descendants,  Messrs. 
Lowry  and  Weaver  being  the  only  ministers  in  the  history  of  the  church 
who  were  installed. 

"  Rev.  Weaver  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  considerable  force  of  char- 
acter, and  if  we  may  judge  from  the  records,  of  a  somewhat  aggressive 
temper  and  a  strict  disciplinarian.  During  the  first  twelve  years  of  its  his- 
tory, the  records  of  the  little  church  do  not  show  a  single  case  of  disinpline 
or  of  any  charge  preferred  by  brother  against  brother.  But,  about  1835  it 
entered  upon  a  new  and  troubled  page  of  Us  histon,-.  Session  frequently  ad- 
monished refractory  members.  Charges  were  often  brought  for  trivial  offenses, 
and  frequent  complaints  of  slander  show  that  a  great  deal  of  heated  and  angry 
controversy  was  being  indulged  in.  The  student  of  these  records  soon  be- 
comes convinced  that  the  church  and  even  the  session  itself  were  being 
divided  into  two  hostile  and  apparently  irreconcilable  parties.  This  was  not 
the  fault  of  any  one  man  or  set  of  men.  It  was  simply  that  '  the  irrepressible 
conflict,'  afterward  to  convulse  the  whole  nation,  had  at  the  little  Sand  Creek 
church  already  begun. 

"  September  24,  1836,  Samuel  Donnell  laid  before  the  session  a  paper 
ably  reviewing  and  severely  condemning  the  course  of  the  General  Assembly 
on  the  subject  of  slavery,  concluding  with  the  decUration  that  so  long  as  the 
church  continues  to  give  her  countenance  and  support  to  the  crying  sin  of 
oppression,  she  must  expect  the  displeasure  of  God  and  the  scorn  of  infidels 
to  rest  upon  her,  and  resolving  that  the  foregoing  paper  be  sent  up  to 
Presbytery  as  an  overture  from  this  session,  asking  the  opinion  of  Presbytery 
on  the  subjects  therein  contained.  Whether  this  paper  ever  reached  Presby- 
tery or  not  does  not  appear  ;  but  in  November  Presbytery  held  a  two-daj-s' 
session  at  Sand  Creek,  and  directed  that  in  view  of  the  difficulties  existing  in 
the  church  a  vote  be  taken  by  the  congregation  on  the  acceptability  of  the 
several  members  of  session.    December  22d  this  meeting  was  held  at  Thomas 


—11— 

Hamilton's  house,  the  meeting-house  we  are  told  being  uncomfortable,  and 
Samuel  Donnell  and  John  C.  McCoy  were  voted  unacceptable  and  Thomas 
Hamilton,  James  Thomson  and  John  Kirkpatrick  were  voted  acceptable. 
Thomas  Hamilton  immediately  resigned,  and  his  resignation  was  accepted. 
At  a  subsequent  meeting  Joseph  Graham,  Sr.,  Robert  Hamilton  and  James 
Ardery  were  elected  to  fill  the  vacancies  thus  occaisioned.  The  crisis  had 
now  been  reached.  On  March  13,  1837,  Thomas  Hamilton  laid  before  session 
a  paper  giving  notice  that  the  undersigned  members  of  the  Sand  Creek  church 
wish  to  withdraw  and  do  withdraw  their  membership  from  said  church. 
This  paper  was  dated  March  4,  1S37,  and  was  signed  by  thirty-seven  members. 
All  of  these  persons,  with  two  exceptions,  belonged  to  the  three  families  of 
McCoy,  Hamilton  and  Donnell  and  those  connected  with  them  by  marriage, 
including  in  the  family  of  Samuel  Donnell,  Andrew  Robison,  Jr.,  and  Pres- 
ton E.  Hopkins. 

"  The  seceding  church,  which  grew  into  what  is  now  the  Kingstoa  Pres- 
byterian Church,  was  in  a  decided  minority,  the  whole  number  of  members 
before  the  division  being  given  three  years  before,  in  1S34,  at  167.  All  its 
records  up  to  1S63,  when  a  new  session  book  was  begun,  have  unfortunately 
been  lost,  so  that  for  facts  and  dates  up  to  that  time  the  historian  has  had  to 
depend  upon  a  careful  comparison  of  the  recollections  of  the  older  members. 
The  records  of  the  older  church  have  apparently  suffered  the  same  fate. 

"The  following  dates  in  its  history  have  been  as  carefully  verified  as 
possible  under  the  circumstances.  Rev.  Joseph  Monfort,  so  long  the  senior 
editor  of  the  Herald  and  Presbyter,  then  a  young  man  just  beginning  his 
career,  succeeded  Mr.  Weaver  in  1839.  He  was  not  only  a  minister  of  ability, 
but  a  man  of  great  tact  and  good  judgment.  His  influence  doubtless  did 
much  to  lessen  the  antagonisms  caused  by  the  division.  It  is  a  proof  of  the 
strong  common  sense  and  good  feeling  of  both  churches  that  no  feuds  grew 
out  of  the  separation,  and  from  ihis  time  until  they  were  once  more  one 
church,  with  the  exception  of  some  natural  jealousies,  mutual  respect  and 
good  feeling  existed  between  them.  Rev.  Monfort  was  succeeded  in  1 841  by 
Rev.  Adams,  and  he  in  turn  by  Rev.  David  Monfort,  an  uncle  of  Joseph 
Monfort.  Mr.  Monfort  gave  place  to  his  son-in-law.  Rev.  John  King,  in  1844, 
who  has  perpetuated  his  memory  among  us  by  laying  out  and  giving  his 
name  to  the  village  of  Kingston,  and  ultimately  to  the  church.  Mr.  King 
still  lives,  at  an  advanced  age,  in  Arkansas.  Rev.  William  Stryker  supplied 
the  church  from  about  1852  to  1856.  Rev.  H.  M.  Shockley,  who  became 
minister  about  1857,  is  remembered  as  an  agreeable  young  man,  of  excellent 
social  qualities  and  a  favorite  with  young  people  Rev.  Van  Nuys  was  the 
last  pastor,  supplying  the  church  during  the  first  years  of  the  war. 

"  While  the  new  church,  as  we  have  seen,  was  composed  of  a  few  large 
families  living  around  the  village  and  gradually  spreading  out  on  adjoining 
farms,  the  members  of  the  older  church  lived  mainly  on  the  borders  of  the 
community.  Gradually  it  suffered  the  fate  of  many  country  churches.  Some 
of  its  wealthy  members  connected  with  the  Greensburg  church.  Some  died, 
many  removed  to  oilier  places.  Early  in  the  sixties  it  had  become  so  weak- 
ened that  services  were  practically  discontinued.  In  matters  of  doctrine  and 
politics  the  two  churches  were  now  one,  and  its  remaining  members  were 
about  this  time  gradually  absorbed  into  the  sister  church.  To  go  back  to 
the  history  of  the  seceding  church,  finding  itself  ontside  the  Presbyterian 


—12— 

fold,  it  sought  a  temporary  shelter  in  the  Congregational  church.  Its  first 
minister  after  the  division  was  Rev.  M  H.  Wilder,  a  Congregational  minister 
living  in  Franklin  county,  who  was  engaged  for  one-fourth  of  his  time,  and 
remained  a  year.  In  1840  the  little  frame  church,  which  afterward  served  the 
community  as  a  school-house,  was  built. 

"Rev.  Benjamin  Nyce,  afterward  destined  to  fill  a  larger  space  in  the 
church  and  neighborhood,  was  then  principal  of  the  Greensburg  Seminary, 
and  for  two  years  supplied  the  church  on  Sundays. 

"  Rev.  Charles  Chamberlain,  a  young  man  from  the  East,  succeeded  Mr. 
Nyce,  remaining  about  a  year.  He  was  popular  with  the  congregation,  and 
much  deplored  when  he  returned  to  the  East,  married  a  wife  and  therefore 
could  not  come  back. 

"  The  New  School  church  had  in  1S38  broken  off  from  the  old,  and  the 
fathers,  probably  never  much  at  home  in  Congregationalism,  glaily  united 
with  it.  Rev.  Mr.  Boram,  formerly  of  the  Episcopal  church,  and  living  in 
Greensburg,  about  this  tiaie  supplied  the  church  for  a  few  months,  and  is 
only  vaguely  remembered.  He  was  succeeded  in  1842  by  Rev.  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, who  remained  about  a  year.  He  was  a  preacher  of  ability,  though 
of  somewhat  eccentric  disposition. 

"  From  about  1844  to  1S47  Rev.  Jonathan  Cable  supplied  the  church,  and 
his  wife  kept  a  private  school  at  their  home.  Mr.  Cable  was  an  energetic 
farmer  as  well  as  minister,  and  an  earnest  anti-slavery  worker. 

"  Rev  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  came  to  the  church  in  1847,  was  an 
Englishman,  fresh  from  missionary  life  in  the  West  Indies.  The  church  was 
now  firmly  established,  and  the  community  had  become  prosperous,  and  even 
wealthy.  Nevertheless,  the  crude  Western  ways  of  living  made  a  great  im- 
pression on  Mr.  Franklin,  especially  the  tobacco  chewing,  and  he  could  give 
in  after  years  some  amusing  reminiscences  of  those  early  days.  He  was  a 
genial,  cultivated  gentleman,  and  with  his  excellent  wife,  was  a  great  favorite 
with  young  and  old.  During  his  pastorate  a  separate  church  was  organized 
at  Clarksburg  for  the  convenience  of  a  number  of  members  living  near 
there.  Luther  Donnell  was  prominent  in  its  organization,  and  was  its  first 
elder.  In  1850  Rev.  Benj.  M.  Nyce,  who  had  become  a  son-in-law  of  the 
church  by  his  marriage  with  Melissa  Hamilton,  again  became  its  minister. 
Mr  Nyce  was  a  preacher  of  great  originality  and  force.  Both  as  a  minister 
and  principal  of  the  school  for  a  number  of  years,  he  left  a  lasting  mark  on 
the  rising  generation.  During  his  ministry,  in  1850  or  1851,  the  most  radical 
element  of  the  New  School  body  seceded  from  it  and  formed  the  Free  Pres- 
byterian church,  which  excluded  from  its  membership  all  slave-holders  and 
made  war  on  all  secret  societies.  With  this  l)ody,  which  of  course  repre- 
sented the  most  extreme  anti  slavery  element,  this  church  gladly  united. 

"  We  cannot  resist  the  conviction  that  this  worthy  body  of  reformers 
con  ained  a  good  many  cranks,  and  Kingston  probably  had  its  full  share, 
both  of  preachers  and  members.  But  our  fathers  were  happily  unconscious 
of  the  word.  They  went  on  their  way  quite  regardless  of  the  ridicule  or  the 
prejudice  of  the  outside  world,  with  temperance  and  abolition  written  on 
their  door-posts,  reading  and  circulating  abolition  books  and  papers,  attend- 
ing distant  anti- slavery  conventions  in  their  old-fashioned  carriages,  running 
with  great  success  their  branch  of  the  underground  railroad,  voting  the  most 
extreme  reform  tickets  and  doing  their  humble  best  to  turn  the  world  up-side- 


—13- 

down.  Like  all  reformers,  their  zeal  was  not  always  according  to  discre- 
tion, but  they  left  hehind  them  a  glorious  record,  the  precious  heritage 
of  their  children's  children,  down  to  the  present  generation. 

"About  1S54  Mr.  Nyce  resigned  the  church,  and  Rev.  Daniel  Gilmer  be- 
came its  preacher  for  the  next  three  years.  Mr.Gilmer  was  an  able  preacher  and 
a  forcible  debater,  and  his  interesting  family  of  young  people  were  a  great 
social  addition  to  the  church.  In  1857  the  synod  of  the  Free  Church  was 
held  at  Kingston,  an  occasion  always  much  referred  to.  Among  the  more 
fervid  orators  was  Rev.  William  Perkins,  of  Cincinnati.  On  the  retirement 
of  Mr.  Gilmer,  he  was  called  to  the  church.  He  retained  his  home  in  the 
city,  boarding  round  among  the  people  a  part  of  each  week.  He  was  a  con- 
troversialist, a  brilliant  talker  and  a  most  persuasive  borrower.  No  minister 
has  preached  to  the  church  of  whom  so  many  ^ood  stories  are  told. 

"  In  December,  i860,  the  church  being  once  more  vacant.  Rev.  A  T. 
Rankin,  son  of  Rev.  John  Rankin,  of  Ripley,  entered  upon  his  thirty  years' 
pastorate.  His  ancestry,  his  early  training,  as  well  as  his  own  personality, 
made  him  peculiarly  acceptable  to  the  Kingston  people.  Early  in  his  min- 
istry the  church,  as  we  have  seen,  became  the  one  united  church  of  the 
neighborhood,  and  entered  on  a  career  of  growth  and  prosperity  before  un- 
known. It  was  during  this  period  the  parsonage  was  built,  land  was  added 
to  it,  large  bequests  were  received  by  the  church  from  some  of  the  noble 
pioneers  who  had  done  so  much  to  build  it  up,  a  cemetery  fund  was  raised, 
and  finally  the  present  modern  building  replaced  the  old  frame  church.  In 
1870  Dr.  Rankin  held  the  most  successful  revival  meetings  in  the  history  of 
the  church,  out  of  which  grew  in  the  following  year  the  organization  of  the 
Memorial  church.  It  was  during  his  pastorate  that  a  large  and  successful 
Woman's  Missionary  Society  was  organized.  It  is  this  period  over  which  the 
historian  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  will  linger  with  pride,  where  he  will 
vainly  explore  for  facts  and  figures  the  failing  memories  of  the  survivors  of 
this  occasion.  It  will  be  his  province,  not  mine,  to  speak  of  the  eminent 
services  Dr  Rankin  has  rendered  this  church  and  community,  and  to  pic- 
ture the  respect  and  affection  in  which  he  was  held  during  that  long  period 
by  all  the  country  around.  During  this  period,  also,  the  church  has  suffered 
its  severest  bereavements.  All  the  pioneer  fathers  and  mothers,  save  two, 
who  had  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day  for  more  than  a  half  century, 
'  fell  on  sleep,'  and  were  carried  one  after  another  from  the  old  frame  church 
and  laid  to  rest  in  the  cemetery  across  the  road.  They  were  a  noble  ancestry, 
of  sterling  intelligence,  frugal  in  their  lives,  devoted  to  every  reform,  always 
rich  towaid  God  and  the  church.  With  all  due  respect  for  the  present  and 
all  due  hope  for  the  future,  we  say,  Kingston  church  will  never  look  upon 
their  like  again. 

From  1890  to  1892  Rev,  J.  A.  Liggitt  was  pastor  of  this  church.  From 
August,  1892,  to  January,  1894,  all  too  brief  a  time.  Rev.  Harry  Nyce,  son  of 
Rev.  Benjamin  Nyce,  was  with  us,  and  in  October,  1894,  Rev.  R.  A.  Bartlett 
became  our  minister,  and  long  may  he  go  in  and  out  before  us.  The  events 
of  these  years  are  too  recent  to  need  recalling  here.  These  brethren  are  all 
young  men,  and  can  well  afford  to  wait  until  the  hundredth  anniversary  to 
hear  their  eulogies  from  some  more  gifted  pen.  We  trust  they  may  come 
back  to  us  from  places  of  honor  and  influence  to  grace  the  occasion  with 
their  eloquence  and  their  gray  hairs  and  exchange  reminiscences  of  this  day 


—14— 

with  the  well-preserved  old  gentlemen  and  old  ladies  who  will  still  survive 
it.  It  will  be  for  the  chidren  and  young  people  of  to-day  to  see  that  that 
anniversary  finds  here  still  strong  and  vigorous  the  church  which  their  great 
grandfathers  planted  seventy-five  years  ago,  amid  so  many  hardships,  and 
which  their  grandfathers  and  fathers  have  loved  and  tended  till  to-day. 

"Camilla  Donneli,." 


Through  mistake  this  well  prepared  paper  of  Mr.  Everett  Hamilton  was 
not  read  until  Sabbath. 

OUR  CHURCH  EDIFICES— THE  FINANCIAL  RECORD. 

"On  anniversary  occasions  the  one  who  indulges  in  anecdote  and  re- 
miniscence may  be  allowed  some  latitude  for  the  play  of  his  fancy,  and  of 
incidents  grown  dimmer  and  dimmer  by  passing  years,  this  latitude  may 
widen  and  widen  until  it  knows  no  bounds,  but  the  one  who  writes  history, 
if  nothing  else,  must  be  truthful,  and  the  story  of  transactions  that  have 
occurred  and  events  that  have  happened  beyond  the  memory  of  the  living, 
should  be  verified  by  records  that  have  been  made  and  preserved. 

"At  the  outset  of  this  undertaking  we  are  met  with  a  difficulty  in  the 
scanty  records  to  be  found,  for  while  those  who  have  gone  before  us  builded 
wisely  and  well,  they  kept  no  formal  record  of  preliminary  proceedings  or 
financial  outlays.  The  story  then  of  the  financial  achievements  of  this 
church  must  consist  of  a  simple  narrative  of  its  journey  from  the  old  log 
meeting  house  to  the  present  edifice,  as  gleaned  from  the  recollections  of 
the  living. 

"There  is,  however,  in  an  old  session  book,  some  records  of  church  ex- 
penses and  contributions  to  benevolence,  which  on  account  of  their  age  may 
be  interesting,  and  may  also  serve  as  a  further  introduction  to  this  story. 

"We  copy  from  the  old  book: 

"  'The  following  is  here  transcribed  for  the  sake  of  preservation:  On 
settlement  with  Robert  B.  Donnell  and  James  Thomson,  collectors  for  the 
Sand  Creek  congregation,  the  sum  of  I572.93V  has  been  received  in  dis- 
charge of  the  pecuniary  obligation  of  the  call  which  I  hold  from  said  con- 
gregation up  to  the  beginning  of  the  year,  January,  1829.  The  deficit  of 
$2'].o(i%  is  hereby  relinquished  to  the  credit  of  said  congregration,  so  that 
this  instrument  shall  be  considered  a  clear  receipt  for  three  years  up  to 
January  1,  1829. 

"  'Witness  my  hand  this  9th  day  of  January,  1830. 

"  'Samuel  G.  Lowry.' 

"It  is  not  an  uncharitable  reflection  on  the  benevolence  of  the  Rev. 
Samuel  G  Lowry,  considering  the  meagerness  of  his  salary,  to  credit  the 
belief  that  probably  the  reason  he  relinquished  the  deficit  was  because  the 
resources  of  the  collectors  were  exhausted. 

"This  entry  also  appears: 

" 'The  following  is  transcribed  for  the  same  reason  as  above:  Agree- 
able to  the  settlement  this  day  made  with  the  collectors  of  the  Sand  Creek 
church,  I  hereby  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  $632.50  for  the  years  1829-1830- 
183 1  and  half  of  the  year  1832. 

"  'Signed  August  25th,  1832.  "  'Samuel  G.  Lowry.' 


Rev.  J.  G.   MONFORT,  D.  D..  UL.  D. 


—15- 

"It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  Mr.  Lowry  received  for  the  years  men- 
tioned $180.87  per  anumn,  and  that  the  services  of  a  pastor,  like  other  com- 
modities of  that  period,  were  obtained  at  very  reasonable  rates. 

"The  entries  in  the  old  session  book  of  the  benevolent  contributions  for 
the  inspection  of  Presbytery  are  also  interesting.  From  October,  1827,  to 
October,  1828,  seventy-five  cents  were  contributed  to  Presbytery;  in  1828, 
$3.00  for  commissioners'  fund;  in  1830,  I3.00  for  commissioners'  fund  and 
$10.00  for  theological  seminary;  in  1831,  $3.00  for  commissioners'  fund  and 
$40.00  for  education. 

"Having  exhausted  the  old  session  book,  let  us  consider  for  a  little  while 
the  log  meeting  house,  which  we  are  told  was  erected  in  1826,  and  probably 
stood  on  the  highest  point  of  ground  directly  west  of  the  present  edifice,  in 
the  cemetery  inclosure.  We  would  very  naturally  picture  this  structure  as 
very  crude,  and  to  harmonize  it  with  the  cabins  of  the  pioneers,  would  have 
it  built  of  round  logs  with  a  clap-board  roof  held  fast  by  ridge  poles,  and  so 
generally  finished  as  to  let  the  weather  in  and  keep  the  sunshine  out,  but  we 
are  told  by  one  who  remembers  it  well,  that  in  appearance  it  was  respectable, 
being  built  of  poplar  logs,  nicely  hewn  with  chinks  well  and  neatly  pointed. 
We  are  also  told  that  when  it  was  no  longer  needed  as  a  house  of  worship, 
it  was  sold  to  John  Hopkins,  who  it  seems  had  a  propensity  for  buying  old 
buildings  and  moving  them  on  his  farm.  The  transaction  caused  one  of  his 
neighbors  to  remark  that  'Uncle  Jack's  punishment  in  the  next  world  would 
be  in  seeing  old  buildings  scattered  around  and  that  he  would  not  be  pre- 
mitted  to  move  them  ' 

"The  second  edifice,  erected  in  1836,  was  a  brick  and  stood  to  the  north 
in  the  same  inclosure.  The  brick  work  was  let  William  Walters,  who  lived 
on  a  farm  now  owned  by  Henry  Metz.  The  brick  were  made  on  his  place 
and  hauled  to  the  building  site.  The  carpenter  work  went  to  a  man  named 
Gerhart,  and  the  two  largest  subscriptions  for  its  construction  were  $50  00 
each,  given  by  Samuel  and  Jas.  E.  Hamilton.  We  are  told  by  one  who  was 
present,  the  way  in  which  the  contracts  for  this  building  were  let,  and  it 
seems  so  novel  that  it  is  worth  recording.  A  day  was  appointed  and  the  trus- 
tees and  bidders  were  present,  one  of  the  trustees  mounted  a  block  and  in  auc- 
tion fashion  cried  the  bids,  the  rival  bidders  bidding  back  and  forth,  but  of 
course  bidding  down  instead  of  up,  finally  the  brick  work  was  knocked 
down  at  something  like  $500.00.  In  like  manner  the  carpenter  work  was 
let,  but  going  at  a  smaller  sum.  Recollections  of  this  edifice  are  vivid  in  the 
minds  of  many.  A  long,  low,  roomy  building  with  two  entrance  doors  and 
a  high  boxed  pulpit  between  them;  long  narrow  aisles  and  a  low  ceiling  sup- 
ported by  many  wooden  posts,  it  also  had  many  windows,  but  the  brethren 
who  worshiped  there  did  not  all  receive  the  same  light,  for  we  are  told  dis- 
sensions arose  and  peace  and  brotherly  love  departed  for  a  season. 

"The  third  edifice,  erected  in  1840,  was  a  frame  and  stood  in  the  front  of 
what  is  now  the  schoolyard.  This  was  not  so  large  as  the  brick,  but  the 
ceiling  was  higher  and  the  windows  larger,  the  entrance  doors  were  double 
— a  middle  aisle  with  the  pulpit  in  the  rear  The  failure  to  obtain  any  in- 
formation as  to  the  financial  outlay  incurred  in  the  erection  of  this  building 
is  complete.  After  twelve  or  more  years  of  service  as  a  house  of  worship,  it 
passed  to  the  civil  township  and  was  used  by  the  district  school.  The  lum- 
ber for  this  edifice  was  sawed  at  a  mill,  whose  power  was  furnished  by  a 


—16— 

large  tread  wheel  on  which  cattle  were  worked,  owned  and  operated  by 
Cyrus  Hamilton.  An  incident  is  related  in  connection  with  this  lumber 
that  caused  great  worry  to  two  of  the  worthies  of  the  church,  namely.  Uncle 
John  McCoy  and  Samuel  Donnell.  It  seems  that  they  had  especial  charge  of 
drying  the  lumber  and  by  some  accident  or  neglect  the  kiln  was  consumed 
by  fire.  Their  distress  at  this  di-aster  was  very  great  and  was  only  removed 
when  new  logs  were  cut  and  sawed  to  replace  the  kiln  that  was  destroyed. 

"Coming  on  to  1854,  we  find  the  fourth  edifice  in  process  of  erection. 
During  the  raising  of  the  frame  of  this  edifice  there  was  a  crash  of  falling 
timber,  caused  by  the  carelessness  of  the  builder,  which  seriously  injured 
five  or  six  persons,  one  or  two  of  whom  were  maimed  for  life.  We  are  told 
that  the  funds  for  this  were  raised  by  an  assessment,  and  that  the  basis  of  the 
assessment  was  the  taxable  property  listed  to  each  member  as  found  in  the 
county  records.  We  are  also  told  that  but  very  few  objected  or  refused  to 
pay  the  full  amount  of  the  assessment.  With  such  a  record  as  this,  the 
spirit  of  justice  and  fairness  that  abided  with  that  body  of  worshipers  cannot 
be  doubted.  It  is  here  we  find  a  scrap  of  paper,  headed  "Church  Money  " 
This  paper  has  two  columns  of  figures,  one  of  "Receipts"  and  one  "Ex- 
pended." The  receipts  show  collections  of  assessments  from  fifteen  members 
of  the  congregation  living  south  of  the  church,  and  make  a  total  of  $1,028.34. 
The  expended  column  shows  payments  during  the  year  to  D.  Welsh  of 
$803  24,  and  for  bible  and  "trimings"  I5.25.  The  acknowledgments  of 
these  payments  are  from  David  Welsh  to  R.  A.  Hamilton,  trustee  of  the 
Free  Presbyterian  church.  We  can  reasonably  conclude  that  this  repre- 
sents only  the  settlement  of  one  of  the  trustees,  and  as  the  territory  men- 
tioned would  only  cover  about  one-half  of  the  taxable  property  which  formed 
the  basis  of  the  assessment,  by  doubling  these  collections  we  come  very 
near  the  cost  of  the  edifice,  which  was  something  over  $2,000. 

"About  this  time  the  parsonage  lot  must  have  been  acquired,  although 
we  have  been  unable  to  find  any  record  of  date  or  purchase  price.  The  writer 
remembers  it  as  the  old  Parvin  residence,  the  house  was  a  cheap  frame,  and 
Parvin  had  a  little  shop  on  the  corner  where  he  and  his  boys  made  boots 
and  shoes  during  the  week,  and  Parvin  led  the  singing  in  the  old  brick 
church  on  Sundays.  The  shop  served  at  one  time  as  the  village  postoffice, 
and  Parvin  as  postmaster.  Later  on  the  brick  building  which  now  stands 
was  erected  in  front,  with  material  from  the  old  brick  church,  the  old  frame 
serving  as  rear  apartments  to  the  new  building.  We  are  told  the  cost  of 
this  was  about  $2, 00c:). 

"Coming  on  this  way  we  find  no  records  of  expenses  or  improvements. 
They  kept  no  books  in  those  days,  but  in  the  times  before  the  civil  war  the 
writer  remembers  some  munificent  offerings  from  the  congregation  wor- 
shiping in  that  Free  Presbyterian  church,  when  the  cause  was  the  advance- 
ment of  human  freedom.  On  December  25,  1869,  seventeen  acres  of  land 
adjoining  the  parsonage  were  conveyed  to  the  trustees,  at  a  cost  of  $1,300. 

'  'A  financial  record  of  a  church  that  does  not  show  that  at  some  time  it 
found  itself  in  debt,  would  hardly  be  credited;  so  to  maintain  our  standing 
in  this  respect,  we  mention  a  note  which  was  dated  February  7,  1870,  for 
$544  payable  one  day  after  date,  to  the  pastor  then  in  charge,  bearing  ten 
per  cent,  interest  and  duly  stamped  and  signed  by  S.  A.  Donnell  and  Jesse 
G.  Donnell,  trustees.     This  note  bears  some  credits  of  intere.sts  and  some 


REV.  JOHN  KING. 


—18— 

payments  on  the  principal  and  a  statement  that  on  January  i,  1872,  it  was 
cancelled  by  a  new  note.  The  new  note  besides  credits  of  interest  is  re- 
ceipted in  full  December  25,  1875,  from  proceeds  of  a  subscription  paper. 

"  It  was  probably  in  the  year  1875  that  Mr.  Jaaes  E.  Hamilton,  with  that 
far-seeing  wisdom  that  was  characteristic  of  the  man,  and  with  a  desire  to 
do  something  that  would  be  of  permanent  benefit  to  the  church  he  loved  so 
well,  gave  the  sum  of  $2,000  as  an  endowment,  the  income  from  which  should 
go  to  the  regular  expenses  of  the  church.  This  was  followed  later  by  gifts 
of  |i,ooo  each  for  the  same  purpose  from  Miss  Mary  E.  Hamilton,  R.  M. 
Hamilton  and  Mrs.  Sally  Donnell,  swelling  the  sum  to  |5,ooo,  which  has 
since  been  increased  $200  by  added  income  while  the  church  had  no  pas- 
tor. For  these  generous  gifts  the  church  will  ever  hold  those  who  gave  them 
in  grateful  remembrance. 

"  The  time  is  nearing  when  we  must  part  from  this  old  edifice  as  a  house 
of  worship,  which  is  so  well  remembered  by  everyone,  for  in  1882  it  was  de- 
termined to  build  a  new  one,  and  the  present  edifice  is  the  result.  The 
digression  will  be  pardoned  if  we  here  follow  it  to  the  end,  and  to  most  of 
us  who  have  passed  the  noon  hour  of  the  day  of  life,  it  will  be  with  feelings 
like  those  we  would  have  in  parting  for  the  last  time  with  a  very  near  and 
dear  old  friend.  After  twenty-nine  years  of  service  as  a  houte  of  worship, 
this  edifice  whose  walls  had  echoed  the  voices  of  so  many  reformers  and 
noted  revivalists,  was  used  as  a  hall  for  debating  clubs,  political  harangues 
and  entertainments  of  all  sorts,  until  in  the  spring  of  1892  it  was  destroyed 
by  fire. 

"  Returning,  we  have  left  us  a  certified  copy  of  a  subscription  dated  May 
12,  1882.  Its  conditions  bind  the  subscribers  when  f.8,000  are  subscribed.  It 
contains  102  signatures,  three  of  which  are  for  $1,000  each,  one  for  $600,  two 
for  $500  each,  and  others  from  I400  down.  The  footings  show  |9,oo6  sub- 
scribed. There  is  also  a  copy  of  a  supplemental  subscription  containing 
twelve  names,  subscribing  $543.  A  study  of  the  names  appended  to  these 
subscription  confirms  the  suspicion  already  aroused,  that  besides  the  mem- 
bership, old  acquaintances,  sons-in-law  and  wards  of  the  church  were  visited 
and  that  but  few  escaped.  With  this  total  of  $9,549,  preparations  were  be- 
gun for  the  new  edifice.  In  February,  18S3,  the  title  of  the  ground  on  which 
it  stands  was  conveyed  to  the  trustees  at  a  cost  of  I500,  and  during  the  year 
the  building  was  completed  and  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  Almighty  God. 
The  completed  building,  with  its  furnishings,  cost  probably  |2,ooo  more  than 
the  funds  that  were  provided  in  the  record  we  have  shown  ;  but,  with  the 
help  of  the  young  people  and  the  ladies  of  the  church,  who  have  always  been 
faithful  and  helpful,  and  further  aid  from  friends  who  had  already  given 
generously,  the  bills  were  all  provided  for. 

"  In  a  book  that  is  filled  to  its  last  page,  on  the  fly  leaf  we  find  the  follow- 
ing :  'I,  R.  B.  Whiteman,  assumed  the  duties  of  treasurer  of  Kingston 
Presbyterian  church  February  5,  1882,  by  order  of  the  acting  Board  of 
Deacons,  at  which  time  there  was  no  money  in  the  treasury,  but  a  debt  of 
$25.03  due  to  the  following  named  parties  and  amounts.'  Mr.  Whiteman 
has  left  us  very  complete  records  of  the  regular  expenses  of  the  church,  in- 
cluding contributions  to  the  church  boards  and  offerings  in  great  variety 
which  occurred  during  his  ten  years  of  service.  Occasionally,  faithful  to  its 
old  habits,  we  find  the  church  coming  up  with  a  deficit,  but  invariably  a 


—19— 

foot  note  follows  with  a  statement  that  the  debt  is  discharged  by  a  special 
sub-cription. 

"  In  1890  a  barn  was  built  for  the  parsonage  at  a  cost  of  $300,  and  in  1892 
improvements  were  made  to  the  parsonage  at  a  cost  of  ^pyoo.  Later  on,  re- 
pairs and  improvements  have  been  made  to  the  present  edifice,  including 
those  of  the  present  year,  costing  $600,  and  since  1892  the  treasurers'  an- 
nual statements  have  shown  a  balance  remaining  in  the  treasury, 

"  This,  imperfectly  sketched,  is  the  financial  record  of  the  church.  The 
complete  record  of  its  contributions  for  houses  of  worship,  works  of  charity 
and  benevolence,  and  aid  extended  in  response  to  almost  every  conceivable 
call,  can  never  be  shown  ;  and,  although  its  financial  strength  has  been 
weakened  by  the  changes  of  ownership  in  the  community  and  the  centraliz- 
ing tendencies  of  the  age,  forces  which  are  affecting  and  changing  the  life 
of  society  and  menacing  the  existence  of  the  country  church  in  parts  of  our 
land  to-day,  it  stands  with  its  old  garments  thrown  off  and  adorned  with 
its  new,  in  strength  and  in  beauty,  and  the  day  of  its  passing  does  not  yet 
appear." 

Mrs.  W.  K.  Stewart  gave  an  interesting  and  spicy  account  of  "Our 
Preachers  and  Missionaries." 

OUR  PREACHERS  AND  MISSIONARIES. 

"  A  short  account  of  the  ministers  and  missionaries  who  have  gone  out 
from  the  old  Sand  Creek  church  during  the  past  seventy-five  years  will  show 
that  the  influence  of  this  church  has  reached  almost  around  the  globe.  Her 
representatives  have  been  at  work  in  Korea,  Egypt  and  Liberia  ;  from  Cali- 
fornia to  New  York,  and  in  nearly  every  State  in  the  Union. 

"The  first  ministers  from  this  church  were  Harrison  and  Wallace  Thom- 
son, who  attended  Hanover  College  soon  after  its  organization  in  the  thirties 
Harrison  was  for  many  years  a  professor  at  Hanover,  but  afterward  removed 
to  California,  where  he  died  about  ten  years  ago. 

"A  colored  man  named  Thomas  Ware  was  brought  here  by  William 
Henry,  educated  and  sent  out  by  the  Colonization  Society  to  Liberia.  He 
was  not  a  minister,  but  some  years  ago  a  Rev.  Ware,  presumably  a  son  of 
his,  attended  the  Methodist  General  Conference  as  a  delegate  from  Liberia  ; 
so  that  Thomas  Ware  may  be  called  the  first  missionary  of  the  church. 

"  However,  the  first  real  missionary  connected  with  this  church  was  An- 
drew Jack,  He  was  baptized,  according  to  the  record,  in  1832.  He  was  one  of 
the  early  missionaries  to  Africa,  going  out  some  time  in  the  fifties.  He  was 
obliged  to  return  on  account  of  ill  health,  but  took  up  the  work  at  home,  and 
was  engaged  in  mission  work  in  Indian  Territory  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

"John  Harney  was  another  minister,  a  professor  at  Bloomington,  Ind., 
and  the  noted  editor  of  the  Louisville  Courier  when  it  opposed  George  D. 
Prentice.  Samuel  Hicks  Parvin  was  connected  with  this  church  from  1846 
to  1856,  and  is  now  located  at  Muscatine,  Iowa.  Other  ministers  are  Austin 
Thomson,  deceased,  and  Eberle  Thomson,  now  at  Ripley,  O.  They  were 
both  graduates  of  Hanover  College.  Theophilus  Lowry  is  a  son  of  the  first 
pastor  of  this  church.  George  D.  Parker  was  an  elder  in  this  church  and 
Sunday-school  superintendent,  and  is  now  preaching  at  Converse,  Ind.,  while 
his  son  is  pastor  of  the  Greensburg  church,   Thomas  D.  Bartholomew  gradu- 


REV.  H.  M.  SHOCKLEY. 


—21- 

ated  from  Lane  Seminary  in  1869,  and  after  a  pastorate  of  more  than  twenty 
years  in  northern  Ohio,  Michigan  and  Lawrenceburg,  Ind.,  died  at  his  home 
on  White  Lake,  Mich.,  March  11,  1897. 

"As  the  Jews  claimed  the  children's  children  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation,  so  will  we.  Rev.  Harry  Nyce  is  a  baptized  member  of  this 
church,  while  Rev.  Benjamin  Nyce  was  a  member  of  the  church  at  Clarks- 
burg. Rev.  Harry  Nyce  is  now  at  Peru,  Ind.,  and  Rev.  Benjamin  Nyce  is  at 
Lockport,  N.  Y.  Rev.  Edward  Adams  is  a  missionary  in  Korea.  H.  B. 
Hamilton,  son  of  S.  H.  Hamilton,  preached  in  Kansas  a  short  time  before 
his  death  ;  and  Emmet  Robison,  son  of  Samuel  D.  Robison,  is  preaching  in 
St.  Joseph,  Mo.  Rev.  E.  A.  Allen,  of  Kokomo.  Ind.,  studied  for  the  min- 
istry while  a  member  of  this  church.  There  were  two  other  colored  ministers, 
Rev.  Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  and  Peter  Prim,  who  died  before  his  studies 
were  completed. 

"  While  our  church  still  clings  a  little  to  the  Pauline  theory  that  women 
must  not  preach,  she  is  very  glad  to  use  them  as  missionaries.  Of  these,  we 
have  Mrs.  Annie  Adams  Baird  in  Korea,  and  Mrs.  Cap  Hamilton  Henry  in 
Egypt.  Misses  Eva  and  Rose  Rankin  have  both  taught  mission  schools  in 
Utah.  Miss  Jean  Rankin  served  the  Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions  in 
the  industrial  department  of  Washington  College,  Tenn.,  while  Miss  Hannah 
Evans  did  the  same  at  Huntsville,  Tenn.,  and  Manchester,  Ky. 

"A  list  of  the  ministers  is  as  follows:  Harrison  Thomson,  Wallace 
Thomson,  Andrew  Jack,  John  Harney,  S.  H.  Parvin,  Austin  Thomson, 
Eberle  Thomson,  Theophilis  Lowry,  Geo.  D.  Parker,  T  D.  Bartholomew, 
E.  A.  Allen,  Harry  Nyce,  Benjamin  Nyce,  Edward  Adams,  H.  B.  Hamilton, 
Emmet  Robison.  with  three  colored  ministeis,  A.  J.  Davis,  Thomas 
Ware  and  Peter  Prim. 

"The  foreign  missionaries  are  Thomas  Ware,  Andrew  Jack,  Edward 
Adams,  Annie  Adams  Baird,  Cap  Hamilton  Henry.  The  home  missionaries 
are  Eva  Rankin,  Rose  Rankin,  Jean  Rankin,  Hannah  Evans. 

"  Some  one  has  said  that  a  preacher  without  a  good  wife  is  like  a  pair  of 
shears  with  only  one  blade.  If  this  be  true,  we  in  justice  should  mention 
those  of  this  church  who  have  made  good  ministers'  wives.  These  are  the 
names :  Margaret  Donnell  Rankin,  Almira  Thomson  Lowry,  Melissa 
Hamilton  Nyce,  Cassandra  Donnell  Walker,  Mary  Wilson  Hendryx,  Lizzie 
Shelhorn  Allen,  Annie  Adams  Baird. 


CHURCH  OF  TO-DAY. 

Paper  by  Rev.  R.  A.  Bartlett. 

"I  know  you  will  appreciate  the  intention  which  I  express  to  make  these 
remarks  brief.  Brevity  is  the  best  thing  in  an  address,  next  to  brain.  The 
speaker  need  not  be  deficient  in  the  former,  if  he  is  in  the  latter.  We  hear 
much  said  to-day  about  the  decadence  of  the  country  church.  It  has  in  many 
places  only  a  nominal  existence.  Like  the  old  mill  by  the  stream,  it  has 
seen  its  best  day.  In  other  places  the  country  church  is  in  a  precarious  con- 
dition.    There  are  a  number  of  reasons  for  this. 

"People  tire  of  country  life,  and  coveting  the  modern  conveniences, 
social  and  religious  attractions  of  the  town,  move  there  and  settle  for  the  rest 


—22— 

of  their  lives.  They  do  this,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  '  God  made  the 
country  and  man  the  town.'  We  country  preachers  do  not  envy  our  town 
and  city  pastors  these  sturdy,  vigorous  Christians  ;  but  we  are  sometimes  put 
to  our  wit's  end  to  fill  up  the  gap  made  in  our  membership.  Town  churches 
would  soon  become  extinct  were  it  not  for  country  Christians.  In  country 
districts,  too,  where  the  population  is  sparse,  the  ravages  of  death  are  more 
keenly  felt.  The  staunch  paying  member  is  removed  by  death,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  fill  his  place  with  one  like  him. 

"  The  Kingston  Church  in  the  last  few  years  has  lost  by  removals  and 
deaths.  Still,  we  have  made  some  progress,  and  the  church  of  to-day  is 
united  and  harmonious.     Our  audiences  every  Sabbath  are  well  maintained. 

"The  finances  are  efficiently  managed,  and  all  expenses  of  the  church 
are  paid  monthly.  In  one  week  the  people  subscribed  $450  toward  church 
improvements.  In  addition  to  this,  the  furnace  was  moved  and  remodeled, 
the  basement  excavated  and  cemented,  as  you  have  seen  it.  All  of  this  shows 
a  commendable  degree  of  activity,  and  reveals  the  fact  that  we  are  far  from 
being  decadent.  We  have  one  hundred  and  forty-two  members  on  the  roll .  The 
Sabbath-school  has  an  enrolled  membership  of  one  hundred.  During  the 
past  four  years,  we  have  received  sixty-nine  members,  raised  for  benevolences 
11,835,  and  for  congregational  expenses  |4,i6o.  The  women  are  organized 
into  Home  and  Foreign  Missionary  Societies  and  are  doing  a  good  work 
for  the  Master. 

"The  Y.  P.  S.  C.  E.  numbers  forty  active  members,  and  the  Junior 
Society  twenty.  The  officers  of  the  church  are  capable  and  faithful  men, 
and  have  always  co-operated  with  the  pastor.  We  hear  the  complaint  that 
the  church  in  some  places  is  manless.  This  is  not  true  of  the  Kingston 
Church.  We  are  blest  with  men  who  are  willing  to  give  their  time  and  ener- 
gies to  the  work  of  the  Lord,  During  the  progress  of  repairs,  the  men  of 
this  congregation  gave  cheerfully  of  their  time  and  money  to  the  work. 

"What  shall  I  say  of  the  faithful  women?  Time  would  fail  me  if  I 
should  attempt  to  enumerate  their  virtues.  They  do  not  excel  simply 
in  the  direction  of  providing  a  good  dinner.  One  feels  like  endorsing  the 
remark  of  the  distinguished  Adam  Clark,  that  '  you  could  set  down  one 
woman  as  the  equal  of  seven  and  one-half  men.'  There  is  doubtless  much 
truth  in  this,  even  if  his  moral  equation  cannot  be  proven  mathematically. 

"  Our  choir,  while  it  has  lost  by  weddings  and  removals,  has  always  co- 
operated with  the  pastor.  While  I  do  not  wisli  to  deny  any  member  of  the 
choir  the  sweet  delights  and  joys  of  wedded  life,  I  hope  the  next  weddings 
will  not  invade  that  corner  of  the  sanctuary. 

"The  church  has  as  nice  a  company  of  young  men  and  women  as  you 
will  find  anywhere.  They  are  not  of  the  simple  kind,  that  make  a  specialty 
of  frivolity  in  and  out  of  the  church.  They  are  sensible  and  kind-hearted, 
and  are  ready  to  do  their  part  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  church.  In 
short,  the  church  of  to-day  is  full  of  hope,  trusting  in  the  Head  of  the  church. 

"  Pray  for  us  that  we  may  be  divinely  guided,  kept  from  strife,  and  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  of  Life.  A  church  of  power  is  made  up  of  lives 
in  whom  Christ  is  a  living  reality.  On  the  three  superb  arches  of  the  Milan 
Cathedral,  these  three  inscriptions  are  written  :  'All  that  which  pleases  is 
but  for  a  moment ;  all  that  which  troubles  is  but  for  a  moment ;  only  that 


REV.  B.  M.  NYCE. 


—24— 

is  important  which  is  eternal.'  May  the  Christ  who  gave  Himself  for  us  help 
us  as  a  church  to  believe  with  the  whole  heart  '  only  that  is  important 
which  is  eternal.'  " 

Rev.  Harry  Nyce,  of  Peru,  then  delivered  the  concluding  address,  from 
the  text,  "  Thou  Hast  Kept  the  Good  Wine  Until  Now."  The  sermon  was  a 
very  inspiring  one,  and  was  delivered  with  great  earnestness  and  power.  It 
was  listened  to  with  rapt  attention  by  a  very  large  audience,  filling  the  audi- 
torium and  galler}-. 

Benediction  pronounced  by  Dr.  Rankin. 


THE  SEVENTY-FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY  SERMON, 

PREACHED  BY  THE 

REV.  A.  T.  RANKIN,  D.  D., 

Sunday  Morning,  December  i8,  1898. 

",Psalm  48: 13-14. 

"  To-day,  December  18,  1898,  marks  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the 
organization  of  this  church.  Rev.  John  A.  Moreland,  a  Presbyterian  minister 
held  in  high  esteem  in  Kentuckj',  a  man  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
his  Divine  Master,  visited  this  vicinity  and  preached  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Henry  on  the  farm  now  owned  by  Mrs.  Wesley  Thorp.  After  the  sermon, 
the  Presbyterians  present  associated  themselves  together  in  a  church.  This 
was  the  first  Presbyterian  church  in  the  county,  and  so  far  as  I  can  find  out, 
the  first  church  in  the  county.  I  believe  it  was  the  grandest  thing  the  fathers 
did  for  this  neighborhood  ;  and  imder  God  it  has  proved  a  blessing  to  the 
county  and  the  State  ;  to  our  country  and  the  world.  With  Clarksburg  and 
Memorial  to  the  northeast,  and  Greensburg,  Forest  Hill,  Union  and  Sardinia 
to  the  southwest,  the  county  map  might  be  made  with  a  band  of  light  diagon- 
ally across  it. 

"Many  members  have  gone  with  your  greeting  to  other  towns,  and  minis- 
ters reared  here  have  preached  in  numerous  other  counties.  One  could  travel 
from  Greater  New  York  to  San  Francisco  and  stop  over  every  night  with  some 
former  Kingston  Christian  family.  And  of  your  members,  foreign  mission- 
aries have  gone  to  western  Africa,  to  E):;ypt  and  Korea,  till  your  religious 
domain  girths  the  world  ;  and  like  the  British  Empire,  the  sun  never  sets 
upon  it.  But  these  things  were  mentioned  particularly  in  the  papers  and 
speeches  yesterday,  so  I  dismiss  them  to  remark  : 

"  1st.  That  the  time  in  the  history  of  this  church  is  the  most  interesting 
period  in  the  past.  No  seventy-five  years  equal  it.  And  nearly  as  much  has 
been  done  for  the  world  through  the  church  as  during  all  the  preceding  cen- 
turies of  the  Christian  era.  Applied  science,  practical  invention,  improved 
machinery,  are  the  product  of  Christian  thought,  and  are  evidence  of  Chris- 
tian civih/.ation.  Note  the  facilities  for  traveling  and  transporting  products, 
as  steamboats  and  steamships,  railroad  communications,  mails,  telegraphs 
and  telephones,  tools  and  implements  for  shop,  factory,  farm  and  home,  by 
which  one  man  or  woman  does  the  work  of  several. 

"  It  was  on  the  iSth  of  December,  1S60,  that  I  came  to  Decatur  county, 
and  thus,  this  day  that  marks  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the  church 


—25- 

also  numbers  the  thirty-eighth  year  of  my  work  with  and  recollections  of 
the  church.  You  would  judge  from  my  text  that  I  wished  to  speak  chiefly 
of  what  has  come  to  pass  during  these  years.  '  Walk  about  Zion,  and  go 
round  about  her  ;  tell  the  towers  thereof.  Mark  ye  well  her  bulwarks,  con- 
sider her  palaces,  that  ye  may  tell  it  to  the  generations  following.' 

"  I  remark  secondly  :  They  have  been  years  full  of  great  events.  They 
are  unparalleled.  The  true  history  of  those  times  is  stranger  than  fiction. 
Beginning  with  i860,  it  is  probable  that  since  the  birth  of  Christ  no  like  part 
of  a  century  has  equaled  it  in  the  production  of  that  which  is  wonderful. 
The  events  in  history,  the  discoveries  of  science  and  the  productions  of  art 
have  been  on  such  a  magnificent  scale  that  if  I  had  proclaimed  them  when  I 
got  off  the  cars  thirty-eight  years  ago  to-day,  instead  of  employing  me  as 
your  pastor  you  would  have  thought  of  calling  two  esquires  to  send  me  to  an 
insane  asylum.  Had  I  said  prophetically  what  history  tells  the  generation 
following  the  one  that  called  me,  who  could  have  believed  it  ?  I  came  to 
stay  till  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  Civil  War  ;  and  to  see  your  members 
sign  the  muster  roll  on  this  communion  table,  and  fight  till  the  most  gigantic 
rebellion  ever  known  was  put  down  ;  the  unity  of  the  country  decreed  ;  free- 
dom given  the  slave  ;  the  ballot  put  in  the  black  man's  hand,  and  the  doors 
of  the  public  schools  opened  to  his  children  ;  the  fugitive  slave  law  repealed, 
and  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  amended  as  at  present ;  Fred 
Douglas,  marshal  of  the  District  of  Columbia  ;  B.  K.  Bruce,  registrar  of  the 
U.  S.  Treasury  ;  former  slaves  elected  to  Congress,  and  the  way  opened  for 
black  men  in  the  regular  army  to  cover  themselves  with  glory,  as  the  24th 
did  on  San  Juan-hill. 

"Who  would  have  thought  I  came  to  stay  till  Russia  set  her  serfs  at  liberty, 
and  France  became  a  republic,  and  Von  Molke  led  the  sturdy  Germans  to 
the  conquest  of  Paris  ;  till  a  man  can  preach  the  gospel  in  Rome,  China  and 
Japan  with  greater  safety  than  Wendell  Phillips  once  spoke  in  Cincinnati  ; 
till  heathen  governments  send  commissioners  here  to  learn  the  secret  of  our 
strength,  and  students  to  gather  the  curriculum  of  our  colleges.  Morse  had 
years  before  made  electricity  on  land,  ask  from  Washington  and  Baltimore, 
'What  hath  God  wrought?"  but  who  imagined  that  during  my  stay  with 
3'ou  the  first  Atlantic  cable  pronounced  a  success  should  be  grappled  up  and 
made,  in  competition  with  others,  to  tell  us  what  Kitchener  did  on  the  Nile 
ihe  day  before,  or  Dewey  in  the  Phillipines? 

"  While  we  had  many  railroads  in  i860,  we  had  none  that  reached  across 
the  continent.  I  buried  one  of  your  number  in  that  beautiful  cemetery  over 
the  way  who  drove  from  here  to  Council  Bluffs  and  returned  without  en  ss- 
ing  a  railroad  or  hearing  a  whistle.  Another  drove  to  Oregon  and  back,  and 
one  sitting  with  you  to-day  drove  1,000  or  1,500  miles  farther  than  that 
miraculous  journey.  I  hear  the  Mormon  elders  tell  of  from  Omaha  to  Salt 
Lake.  Were  my  friend  to  lay  aside  the  cares  of  farm  life  a  few  days,  he 
could  find  rest  and  recreation  in  going  in  a  few  days  over  the  same  route 
that  took  months  before. 

"Again,  who  would  have  been  believed  had  he  foretold  the  improvements 
in  facilities  for  farming?  Compare  the  first  reaper  even  with  the  great 
harvesters  now  drawn  by  three  or  five  horses,  doing  the  work  of  twenty  men 
with  sickles  in  the  olden  time.     Then  in  planting  time,  I  remember  a  few 


—26— 

men  who,  after  the  ground  had  been  marked  both  ways,  could  walk  between 
two  rows  and  drop  them  ready  for  the  coverers.  Now  one  man  with  two 
horses,  sitting  on  a  spring-seat  planter,  does  the  work  of  six  men. 

"  Then  who  would  have  thought  of  speaking  in  a  natural  voice  to  a  friend 
miles  away  and  recognize  the  tones  of  answer  as  if  the  lips  moved  against 
the  ear.  What  a  time  saver  the  telephone  is  to  you  farmers.  You  want  to 
borrow  a  harrow,  ring  up  your  neighbor  a  mile  away,  tell  him  what  you  want 
and  request  him  to  bring  it  over.  Then  when  you  are  done  with  it,  have  a 
pleasant  chat  with  him  and  let  him  know  that  he  can  have  it  when  he  comes. 
So  easy  to  save  his  coming  twice.  Then  with  your  houses  heated  and  lighted 
by  natural  gas,  and  water  for  all  purposes  pumped  by  the  wind,  you  never 
hear  on  a  hot  day,  'bring  a  pail  of  water  or  an  armful  of  stove  wood,  quick.'  You 
turn  a  faucet  for  one  and  a  thumb-screw  for  the  other.  Now,  without  stop- 
ping to  go  over  in  detail  a  long  catalogue  of  improvements  in  other  things, 
and  the  wonderful  events  of  the  Civil  War,  the  more  wonderful  achieve- 
ments in  the  war  with  Spain,  the  things  done  in  the  realms  of  politics,  in 
morals  and  religion  ;  without  stopping  to  count  the  millions  given  for  benevo- 
lent purposes,  it  is  safe  to  say  no  man  would  have  believed  the  half  already 
told,  had  I  prophesied  it  on  December  i8,  i860,  much  less  had  he  dreamed 
it  December  18,  1823. 

"  I  remark  thirdly  :  Just  as  w  jnderful  things  have  come  to  pass  in  this 
vicinity.  Things  as  marvelous,  as  unexpected,  as  incredible,  humanly 
speaking,  have  transpired  in  the  development  of  the  Kingston  Church. 
Suppose,  when  Thomas  Hamilton  and  Addison  Donnell  took  me  out  to  one 
side,  after  I  had  preached,  in  ten  days,  half  the  sermons  I  had  written,  and 
asked  me  if  I  would  preach  here  and  at  Clarksburg  to  the  only  Free  Presby- 
terian churches  in  Indiana  for  $600  a  year  and  the  use  of  that  little  parson- 
age, and  when  I  answered  yes,  I  had  added,  and  will  stay  with  you  till  you 
give  me  more  than  three  times  as  much  rather  than  do  without  preaching, 
and  one  of  your  number  will  give  annually  one-third  as  much  as  all  offer  ; 
till  the  three  little  churches  come  together  as  three  globules  of  mercury  into 
one,  and  the  'Free,'  'New  School'  and  'Old  School'  Presbyterians  lose 
their  prefixes  and  become  Presbyterians  together. 

"  As  many  came  to  us  from  the  M.  E.  Church  as  from  the  Old  School  Pres- 
byterian .  Yes,  I  will  live  in  that  little  parsonage  till  you  build  a  two-story  brick 
front  for  $2,000  and  buy  that  seventeen  and  a  half  acres  for  1 1,500  and  put  up 
that  new  barn  ;  till  Memorial  is  gathered  and  you  contribute  over  $2,500  to 
build  a  church  for  them;  and  Clarksburg  repair  their  building  and  beautify  the 
grounds  at  a  cost  of  over  $1,200,  and  gather  $400  as  a  nucleus  for  a  parsonage 
fund.  Till  that  cemetery  be  endowed  and  made  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful spots  on  earth,  in  which  to  bury  our  dead.  And  then  till  you  purchased 
the  principal  corner  lot  in  the  town  and  erected  this  beautiful  building, 
which  has  been  renovated  and  we  rededicate  to-day  to  the  worship  of  God. 
When  it  was  first  dedicated,  having  no  need  for  ourselves,  we  took  up  $120 
for  church  erection.  It  was  so  unprecedented  a  thing  that  the  board  sent  us 
a  blank  to  fill  with  the  name  of  a  life  member.  It  was  unanimously  voted 
to  put  in  the  name  of  T.  L.  Donnell,  one  of  the  building  committee. 

"  Then  who  would  have  thought  I  would  have  stayed  till  four  of  your 
number  would  furnish  $5,000  cash  endowment  to  help  pay  the  minister's 
salary  for  all  time?    It  was  given  when  they  were  in  perfect  health,  and  two 


—27— 
of  the  donors  still  live.  One  of  your  members  finished  the  chapel  at  Han- 
over and  endowed  a  chair  in  memory  of  her  mother,  whose  picture  adorns 
this  platform  ;  another  sitting  before  me  gave  them  1 1,000  in  memory  of 
Prof.  Harrison  Thomson,  who  hoed  corn  with  him  as  a  barefoot  boy.  An- 
other gave  Whitewater  Presbytery  1 1,000  permanent  home  mission  fund  to 
help  this  corner  of  the  State  forever  ;  and  $  i  ,000  to  endow  a  chair  at  the  table 
in  Park  College,  on  which  some  student  can  sit  three  times  a  day  forever  and 
gather  nourishment  for  the  body  while  seeking  food  for  the  mind.  Now, 
without  stopping  to  add  together  the  many  dollars  we  have  expended  at 
home  in  church  and  Sabbath-school  work,  and  the  sums  gathered  at  special 
and  in  stated  collections  to  help  God's  cause  in  other  places,  which  would 
make  a  vast  sum  indeed,  what  has  been  done  in  these  permanent  ways  is 
gratifying. 

"The  text  bids  me  'Walk  about  Zion,  that  ye  may  tell  it  to  the  generation 
following.'  I  am  speaking  to  the  generation  following  that  noble  band, 
and  to  many  young  families  just  starting  in  life  who  need  but  to  look  over 
this  community  to  see  that  'there  is  that  scattereth  and  yet  increaseth.' 
And  look  on  other  communities  that  have  made  no  such  provision  for  moral, 
intellectual  and  religious  training  to  see  that  '  there  is  that  that  withholdeth 
more  than  is  meet,  and  it  tendeth  to  poverty.'  Look  upon  this  beautiful 
building,  fresh  from  the  frescoing  and  painting  brush,  that  may  stand  for  a 
century  a  monument  to  the  liberal  givers  of  Kingston,  and  as  you  go  to  your 
home,  look  upon  the  fine  farms  on  every  side,  that  speak  of  the  industry  and 
frugality  of  the  pioneers,  and  say  with  David,  '  The  lines  are  fallen  unto  me 
in  pleasant  places  ;  yea,  I  have  a  goodly  heritage.' 

"Taking  in  the  whole  range  of  thought  in  this  discourse,  and  I  have  never 
seen  a  spot  of  earth  that  surpasses  that  which  may  be  seen  from  the  tower  of 
this  building,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  you  young  people  may  not  make 
the  future  Kingston  Church  surpass  the  one  of  the  olden  time.  This  house 
is  the  fourth  evolution  from  the  first  log  meeting-house,  that  stood  over  the 
way,  and  some  are  here  to-day  whose  self-sacrifice  helped  build  every  one  of 
the  five,  and  these  large  brick  dwellings  were  evolved  from  the  little  log 
cabins  with  puncheon  floors  and  clapboard  roofs.  Bat  the  builders,  with  but 
a  step  between  them  and  the  grave,  look  across  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death  to  the  upper  and  better  sanctuary  where  they  will  worship,  and  to  the 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens  ;  and  bequeath  to  you 
this  place  of  worship  and  your  dwellings  here,  with  desire  that  you  make  the 
next  seventy-five  years  of  church  history  surpass  the  last." 


REV.  DANIEL  GILMER. 


—29— 


THE  DIAMOND  JUBILEE  OF  KINGSTON  CHURCH. 

"  Let  the  people  praise  thee,  O  God ; 
Let  all  the  people  praise  thee.''— Vs.  67:3. 

REDEDICATORY  SERVICE. 


DOXOLOGY. 
(Congregation  standing.  1 

OPENING  RESPONSE. 

/Izj/or— Praise  ye  the  I,ord.  Praise  God 
in  His  sanctuary  ;  praise  Him  in  the  firm- 
ament of  His  power. 

People— Praise  Him  for  His  mighty  acts  : 
praise  Him  according  to  His  excellent 
greatness. 

Pastor— Praise  Him  with  the  sound  of  the 
trumpet:  praise  Him  with  the  psaltery  and 
harp. 

People —Praise  Him  with  the  timbrel  and 
dance :  praise  Him  with  stringed  instru- 
ments and  organs. 

Pastor — Praise  Him  upon  the  loud  sym- 
bals  :  praise  Him  upon  the  high  sounding 
cymbals. 

People — Let  everything  that  hath  breath 
praise  the  Lord.     Praise  ye  the  Lord. 

INVOCATION. 
(Congregation  seated.) 

HYMN. 

Great  is  the  Lord  our  God, 

And  let  His  praise  be  great ; 
He  makes  His  churches  His  abode. 

His  most  delightful  seat. 

These  temples  of  His  grace, 

How  beautiful  they  stand  ! 
The  honors  of  our  native  place, 

The  bulwarks  of  our  land. 

In  Zion  God  is  known, 

A  refuge  in  distress  ; 
How  bright  has  His  salvation  shone 

Through  all  her  palaces  ! 

Oft  have  our  fathers  tcid. 

Our  eyes  have  often  seen. 
How  well  our  God  secures  the  fold 

Where  His  own  sheep  have  been. 

In  every  new  distress 

We'll  to  His  house  rep=iir. 
We'll  think  upon  His  wondrous  grace, 

And  seek  deliverance  there. 

(To  be  read  in  unison.; 

Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates  ; 

And  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors; 
and  the  King  of  CAory  shall  come  in. 

Who  is  this  King  of  Glory?  The  Lord, 
strong  and  mighty,  the  Lord  mighty  in 
battle. 

Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates  ;  even  lift 
them  up.  ye  everlasting  doors;  and  the 
King  of  Glory  shall  come  in. 

Who  is  this  King  of  Glory  ?  The  Lord  of 
hosts,  he  is  the  King  of  Glory. 


(Congregation  standing.) 

How  beauteous  on  the  mountains, 

The  feet  of  Him  that  brings 

Like  streams  from  living  fountains, 

Good  tidings  of  good  things  ; 

That  publisheth  salvation, 

And  jubilee  release, 

To  every  tribe  and  nation, 

God's  reign  of  joy  and  peace  ! 

Lift  up  thy  voice,  O  watchman  ! 
And  shout  from  Zion's  towers. 
Thy  Hallelujah  chorus, — 
•'  The  victory  is  ours  ! " 
The  Lord  shall  build  up  Zion 
In  glory  and  renown. 
And  Jesus,  Judah's  lion, 
Shall  wear  His  rightful  crown. 

Break  forth  in  hymns  of  gladness, 

O  waste  Jerusalem  ! 

Let  songs,  instead  of  sadness. 

Thy  jubilee  proclaim  ; 

The  Lord,  in  strength  victorious, 

Upon  thy  foes  hath  trod  ; 

Behold  !'0  earth  !  the  glorious 

Salvation  of  our  God  ! 

Scripture  Lesson. 

Special  Music. 

rededicatory  prayer— pastor. 

Offertory. 

REDEDICATORY    SERMON— DR.    A.    T. 
R.ANKIN. 

HYMN. 

(Congregation  standing.) 

Zion  !  awak",  thy  strength  renew, 
fut  on  thy  robes  of  beauteous  hue  ; 
And  let  the  admiring  world  behold 
The  King  s  fair  daughter  clothed  in  gold. 

Church  of  our  God  I  arise  and  shine. 
Bright  with  the  beams  of  truth  divine  ; 
Then  shall  thy  radiance  stream  afar, 
Wide  as  the  heathen  nations  are. 

Gentiles  and  kings  thy  light  shall  view. 
And  shall  admire  and  love  thee,  too  ; 
Thev  come  1  ke  crowds  across  the  sky. 
As  doves  that  to  their  window  fly. 

CLOSING  RESPONSE. 

Pastor— Orace  be  unto  you,  and  peace, 
from  Him  which  is,  and  which  was,  and 
which  is  to  come ;  and  from  the  seven 
spirits  which  are  before  His  throne. 

People— A.nd  from  Jesus  Christ,  who  is 
the  faithful  witness,  and  the  first  begotten 
of  the  dead,  and  the  Prince  of  the  kiugs  of 
the  earth.  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and 
washed  us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood. 

/4//— And  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests 
unto  God,  and  His  Father  ;  to  Him  be  glory 
and  dominion  forever  and  ever.  Amen. 

BENEDICTION. 


./^■^ 

f            1^. 

V  wF 

REV.  A.  T.  RANKIN.  D.  D. 


—SI- 
LIST  OF  ORIGINAL  MEMBERS  OF  SAND  CREEK  CHURCH, 
AT  KINGSTON. 


Samuel  Donnell, 
John  Hopkins, 

Paul  Brown, 
Hannah  Brown, 
Elijah  Mitchel. 
Fidelia  Mitchel, 
Thomas  Hamilton, 
Robert  Donnell, 
Clarisa  Donnell, 
James  Donnell, 
Betsey  Donnell, 
Josiah  Collins, 
Nelly  Collins, 
Robert  Thorne, 
Lydia  Thorne, 
Thomas  Donnell, 
Nancy  Donnell, 
Polly  Hamilton,  Sr 


John  C.  McCoy, 
Wm.  O.  Ross. 


Nancy  McCoy, 
Sally  Hopkins, 
Charity  Hamilton, 
Aron  Ardery, 
Samuel  Donnell,  Jr., 
Caty  Robison, 
Alexander  McCoy, 
Sarah  Gageby, 
Thomas  Hendricks, 
Elizabeth  Hendricks, 
Margaret  McCoy, 
Nancy  Antrobus, 
Samuel  D.  Henry, 
Robert  Hamilton, 
Polly  Hamilton, 


Hetty  Jones, 
Elizabeth  Henry, 
Jane  Throp, 
Jane  Hamilton, 
Polly  Hamilton, 
David  Henry  , 
Nancy  Donnell,  Jr. 
Jane  Hopkins, 
Caty  Hopkins, 
Elizabeth  R.  Ross, 
Julian  Donnell, 
John  Antrobus, 
Isabella  Antrobus, 
Polly  Antrobus, 
Spica  Thomson. 


The  following  persons  have  filled  the  office  of  ruling  elder  in  the  Kingston 
church  since  the  division  in  1837,  in  addition  to  those  given  in  the  body 
of  this  paper  as  serving  previous  to  that  time.  The  dates  of  their  election 
and  retirement  have  been  as  carefully  verified  as  is  possible  after  this  distance 
of  time.  Although  the  church  for  a  year  or  more  after  the  division  was  con- 
nected with  the  Congregational  body,  it  immediately  elected  three  elders — 
Samuel  Donnell,  John  C.  McCoy  and  Thomas  Hamilton.  The  two  former 
had  served  as  elders  in  the  old  church  since  its  organization  in  1823,  until 
dropped  from  the  session  on  account  of  their  anti-slavery  sentiments  in  1836. 
Thomas  Hamilton,  elected  in  1829,  had  retired  at  the  same  time  and  for  the 
same  reason. 

The  list  is  as  follows  : 

Samuel  Donnell,  elected  1837,  resigned  1S44  ;  John  C.  McCoy,  elected 
1837,  died  1865  ;  Thomas  Hamilton,  elected  1837,  died  1880;  John  C.  Don- 
nell, elected  1844,  died  1883  ;  Andrew  Robison,  Jr.,  elected  1844,  died  1853  ; 
J.  C.  Adams,  elected  1854.  resigned  1869  ;  Jesse  G.  Donnell,  elected  1866  ; 
J.  A.  McCoy,  elected  1S66,  removed  from  neighborhood  1889  ;  G.  D.  Parker, 
elected  1866,  removed  from  neighborhood  1867  ;  J.  B.  Hopkins,  elected  1869  ; 
S.  H.  Hamilton,  elected  1881,  removed  from  neighborhood  1885  ;  Wm.  H. 
Scott,  elected  1881,  died  1885  ;  R.  H.  Evans,  elected  i885,  died  1S91  ;  J.  B. 
Robison,  elected  1886;  Samuel  Jackson,  elected  1895;  W.  K.  Stewart, 
elected  1895. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THOMAS  HAMILTON'S  HISTORY. 

The  following  extracts  from  a  history  of  the  church  prepared  by  Thomas 
Hamilton  in  1857  present  the  personal  recollections  and  opinions  of  one  of 
the  earliest  and  most  devoted  friends  of  the  church.     Uncle  Tommy  Hamil- 


—32— 

ton,  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  possessed  in  a  very  remarkable  degree  the 
confidence  and  esteem  of  the  entire  neighborhood,  both  in  and  out  of  the 
church  membership,  during  the  fifty  years  of  his  service  as  elder.  He  died 
June  i6,  1880.  His  manuscript  was  not  available  at  the  time  of  the  anniver- 
sary, but  some  of  its  more  interesting  features  are  herewith  subjoined  : 

"  Having  composed  one  of  the  number  of  those  who  were  first  organized 
into  the  Sand  Creek  church,  and  having  been  familiar  with  and  having  taken 
a  deep  interest  in  everything  connected  with  her  welfare  for  a  third  of  a  cen- 
tury, it  seemed  good  to  me  to  give  an  outline  of  the  most  important  events 
connected  with  its  history  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  come  after,  that 
they  may  shun  the  mistakes  and  improve  whatever  may  be  worthy  of  imita- 
tion. The  church  was  organized  in  the  latter  part  of  1823,  by  Rev.  John  R. 
Moreland.  The  name  at  first  given  was  Concord,  afterward  changed  to  the 
present  name  on  account  of  some  other  church  in  the  State  having  the  same 
name. 

"  The  original  membership  was  mainly  emigrants  from  Kentucky  and 
Pennsylvania,  mostly  from  Concord  Church  in  the  former  State.  Some  from 
the  first  organization  of  that  State  had  labored  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
Despairing  of  success,  and  unwilling  that  their  descendents  should  grow  up 
under  the  blighting  influence  of  the  iniquitous  system,  they  concluded, 
though  even  then  advanced  in  life,  to  leave  that  rich,  fertile  and  healthy  land 
for  one  less  so,  that  they  and  theirs  might  enjoy  the  advantages  of  free  insti- 
tutions. The  country  was  passing  through  the  most  unprecedented  pressure 
experienced  since  the  Revolutionary  struggle.  Prices,  during  a  few  yt-ars 
preceding,  had  ruled  high.  A  great  amount  of  bank  paper  had  been  put  in 
circulation  without  any  capital,  and  a  general  breaking-down  ensued.  Al- 
most the  whole  country  was  in  debt.  Well-improved  land  in  Kentucky  came 
down  from  twenty-five  dollars  to  eight  dollars  an  acre,  and  other  property  in 
proportion.  Most  of  the  early  settlers  had  but  little  capital  over  what  pur- 
chased their  land,  and  owned  but  small  tracts.  The  country  was  covered  at 
that  time  with  a  dense  growth  of  green  beech,  sugar  and  other  trees  of 
enormous  size,  few  farms  having  more  than  ten  acres  partly  cleared.  The 
seasons  at  that  time  were  very  wet,  especially  in  the  winter  and  spring. 
There  being  no  underdraining,  the  best  part  of  our  lands  were  lost.  Several 
years  passed  before  enough  was  raised  for  home  consumption.  At  that  time 
there  was  no  school  or  meeting-house,  but  meetings  for  prayer  and  conference 
were  held  regularly,  conducted  for  the  most  part  by  Samuel  Donnell  and 
John  Hopkins. 

"In  the  summer  of  1825  a  site  for  a  church  and  burying  ground  was 
selected.  The  congregation  met  and  felled  the  trees  and  burned  the  brush  and 
part  of  the  logs  on  about  an  acre  of  ground,  then  took  a  subscription  from 
individuals  for  a  house,  each  one  agreeing  to  furnish  a  certain  number  of 
logs,  rafters,  sleepers,  shingles,  etc.,  and  some  small  sums  of  money  to  pay 
for  lumber,  nails  and  carpenter  work.  Nothing  was  done  to  the  church  that 
season  but  to  raise  to  the  square.  In  the  fall  of  1825  Rev.  S.  G.  Lowry 
visited  the  church  with  a  view  of  settlement.  With  some  aid  from  the  A. 
H.  M.  S.,  an  amount  was  raised  sufficient  for  his  support,  and  some  aid  to 
purchase  for  him  eighty  acres  of  land.  He  accordingly  settled  in  December, 
1S25.  During  the  winter  the  congregation  met,  hewed  logs  and  raised  a  house 
on  his  own  land  about  half  a  mile  from  the  church." 


—33— 

Mr.  Hamilton  describes  the  ministry  of  Mr.  Lowry  as  successful,  and 
attended  with  two  or  three  revivals  and  a  camp-meeting  conducted  by  Rev. 
Alexander  Rankin.  During  this  period  they  organized  under  the  common 
school  system  ;  and  the  first  temperance  movement  was  begun  under  the 
auspices  of  Mr.  Lowry  and  a  Mr.  Strange.  He  speaks  of  Mr.  Lowry  as  a 
moderate  New  School  man,  and  his  resignation,  in  1S32,  as  brought  about 
partly  by  ill  health  and  partly  by  the  opposition  of  the  Old  School  element 
in  the  church.  His  successor.  Rev.  J.  S.  Weaver,  was  a  pronounced  Old 
School  minister.     The  narrative  continues  : 

"The  pressure  of  the  times  had  gradually  given  way.  Farms  were 
made  ;  farmers  had  some  surplus,  and  rude  cabins  were  giving  way  to  more 
comfortable  and  permanent  house  =!.  While  this  was  the  case  on  the  farms, 
it  was  thought  the  rude,  uncomfortable  log  church  should  be  replaced  by  a 
better.  Accordingly,  funds  were  raised  by  subscription  and  the  building  of 
a  brick  house  let  to  the  lowest  bidder.  During  the  building  of  the  church, 
the  anti- slavery  movement  began  to  be  agitated  here.  A  country  so^-iety, 
auxiliary  to  the  American  Anti-slavery  Society,  was  organized.  Few  of  the 
members  of  the  church  m  inifested  any  hostility  to  the  abolition  movement. 
All  joined  in  condemning  slavery  ;  but  a  considerable  part  stood  aloof  or 
refused  active  co-operation.  Abolitionists  became  zealous,  as  opposition  in- 
creased, pressed  their  arguments  by  means  of  lectures,  newspapers  and  tracts, 
until  to  a  great  extent  that  became  the  absorbing  topic  of  interest.  The 
pastor,  seeing  that  a  portion,  perhaps  a  majority  of  the  church  were  not 
abolitionists,  began  to  stand  aloof,  or  rather  attempted  to  occupy  neutral 
ground.  In  the  meantime,  the  abolitionists,  being  so  indubitably  convinced 
of  the  truth  and  importance  of  their  principles,  became  impatient  to  some 
extent,  thought  all  good  and  right-minded  men  ought  to  embrace  them,  and 
occasionally  were  led  into  some  imprudences.  About  this  time,  Mr.  Hopkins 
was  candidate  for  the  State  Legislature  again.  Most,  if  not  all,  the  anti- 
slavery  members  refused  to  support  him  on  account  of  his  want  of  co-opera- 
tion in  the  temperance  and  anti-slavery  movements,  which  somewhat 
chagrined  him,  he  having  always  heretofore  received  their  support." 

Mr.  Hamilton  here  gives  an  account  of  the  differences  between  Mr. 
Hopkins  and  the  session,  growing  out  of  this  candidacy,  which  are  given 
fully  in  the  old  session  book,  and  proceeds  : 

"  Up  to  this  time  no  very  active  opposition  had  obtained  in  the  church 
to  the  anti-slavery  movement,  but  from  this  time,  efforts  were  made  to  cre- 
ate parties  for  and  against  the  movement.  The  state  of  the  public  mind  was 
such  that  all  who  embraced  the  temperance  and  anti-slavery  causes  did  it  at 
the  cost  of  all  hope  of  preferment  to  office.  Many,  from  a  general  desire  to 
stand  well  with  others,  thinking  their  influence  in  society  would  be  impaired, 
and  that  the  abolitionists  went  too  far  and  too  fast,  hereafter  stood  aloof  from 
the  cause." 

Mr.  Hamilton's  account  of  the  events  leading  up  to  the  division,  and  of 
the  subsequent  history  of  the  church,  is  too  long  to  be  conveniently  quoted 
here.  Perhaps  enough  has  been  given  to  show  the  tolerant  and  just  spirit 
in  which  our  most  notable  church  controversy  is  reviewed  by  one  of  the  most 
earnest  participants  in  it 


REV.  J.  A.  LIGGITT,  D.  D. 


—35— 

HISTORY  OF  REV.  JOHN  R.  MORELAND,  WHO  ORGANIZED  THE 
OLD  SAND  CREEK  CHURCH. 

By  Dr.  IV.  B.  Wishard,  of  Indianapolis. 

"Rev.  John  R.  Moreland  was  born  in  1785  in  western  Pennsylvania.  He 
grew  up  with  no  educational  advantages  except  those  afforded  by  the  school 
taught  in  a  log  house.  He  was  a  carpenter,  and  as  there  was  little  to  do  in 
that  time,  he  took  to  flat-boating  to  New  Orleans.  When  twenty-one  or 
twenty-two  years  old,  he  walked  home  through  the  Indian  nations,  a  journey 
of  about  nine  hundred  miles. 

"  On  one  of  his  trips  down  the  Ohio  river,  he  stopped  three  or  four  days 
at  Limestone,  now  Maysville,  Ky.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Lyle,  an  eminent  divine  of 
Kentucky,  was  holding  a  protracted  meeting  in  the  Presbyterian  church. 
He  went  to  hear  him,  and  was  so  much  interested  that  when  they  were  ready 
to  start  the  boat,  he  notified  his  crew  he  would  not  run  the  boat  any  more. 
He  stated  to  the  crew  that  he  was  converted,  and  that  his  life  plan  was 
changed.  The  revival  was  one  of  unusual  power,  and  he  caught  the  fire  that 
was  never  lost  during  his  noble  ministry.  After  the  meeting  was  closed,  he 
visited  in  Mercer  County,  Ky.  His  means  were  limited.  He  attended 
Transylvania  College,  Lexington,  Ky.  It  is  my  impression  that  he  never 
graduated.  When  he  returned,  he  commenced  studying  divinity  with  the 
celebrated  Thomas  Clelland,  D.  D.,  of  Mercer  county.  The  Rev.  Thornton 
A.  Mills,  D.  D.,  and  the  Rev.  James  A.  Carnahan,  while  visiting  at  my  home, 
spoke  enthusiastically  of  Mr.  Moreland.  In  1848  I  had  occasion  to  visit 
Kentucky,  and  saw  many  of  his  old  acquaintances.  One  of  them,  who  had 
often  heard  him,  stated  that  he  could  command  larger  congregations  than 
anyone  who  had  ever  preached  in  that  county.  He  was  a  man  of  great  mus- 
cular strength  and  endurance  ;  he  was  an  uncompromising  enemy  of  slavery  ; 
this  was  his  reason  for  leaving  Kentucky. 

"There  were  several  of  his  old  acquaintances  living  in  Indianapolis.  They 
invited  him  to  visit  them.  The  First  church  was  vacant.  He  received  a 
call  and  came  here  in  December,  1828.  On  week  days  he  preached  wherever 
opportunity  presented  itself.  He  preached  extemporaneously  from  notes. 
But  a  few  days  since  one  of  our  retired  attorneys,  a  former  judge  of  the  court, 
spoke  to  me  of  his  preaching.  He  said  his  appeals  to  the  unconverted  were 
the  strongest  he  had  ever  heard,  and  at  such  time  he  shed  tears,  and  melted 
the  congregation. 

"He  died  suddenly,  in  October,  1832,  and  now  sleeps  in  Green  Lawn 
Cemetery.  The  church  erected  a  stone  —  there  were  no  monuments  in  that 
day.  

SERMON  BY  HARRY  NYCE, 

At  the  Seventy-fifth  Anniversa)y  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
at  Kingston,  Indiana. 
"When  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bartlett  informed  me,  at  the  meeting  of  synod,  of 
the  coming  celebration  of  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Kingston 
church,  I  at  once  said:  'I  would  like  to  be  present.'  I  well  recall  the  being 
present  at  the  semi-centennial  anniversary.  I  hope  that  twenty-five  years 
hence,  at  the  centennial  anniversary,  many  of  the  boys  and  girls  here  to-day 
will  recall  as  vividly  this  seventy-fifth  anniversary  as  some  recall  that  which 
occurred  twenty-five  years  ago. 


—36— 

"Your  minister  asked  me  to  speak  to  you  to-day.  Since  the  history  of 
the  church  has  been  so  well  recalled,  by  those  who  have  contributed  to  the 
making  of  that  history,  at  this  closing  hour  of  the  day  I  desire  to  speak  to 
you  from  the  text  found  in  the  second  chapter  and  in  the  tenth  verse  of  the  Gos- 
pel, according  to  the  apostle  John:    'Thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now.' 

"These  words  are  taken  from  the  account  given  by  the  Apostle  John  of 
the  first  miracle  of  Jesus  in  Cana  of  Gallilee.  A  wedding  had  taken  place, 
and  the  guests  were  happy  and  contented  at  the  supper,  for,  by  the  power 
of  the  miracle-working  guest,  the  water  h-id  been  turned  into  wine.  The 
ruler  of  the  feast  came  and  tasted  the  water  that  was  made  wine.  He  knew 
not  whence  it  was.  He  thought  that  the  bridegroom  was  responsible  for  the 
wine.  He  tells  how  the  good  wine  had  been  kept  until  toward  the  end  of 
the  feast.  Usually  it  comes  at  the  beginning.  The  ruler  of  the  feast  says 
to  the  bridegroom:  'Every  man  at  the  beginning  doth  set  forih  good  wine, 
and  when  men  have  well  drunk  then  that  which  is  worse;  but  thou  hast 
kept  the  good  wine  until  now.'  'Thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now.' 
The  words  of  the  ruler  only  referred  to  the  feast  in  Cana  of  Gallilee.  But 
the  words  are  also  true  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  worked  His  first 
miracle  at  that  marriage  feast.  The  words  of  the  ruler,  'thou  hast  kept  the 
good  wine  until  now,'  were  wiser  than  he  who  uttered  them  knew.  Stand- 
ing as  we  do  to-day,  in  the  last  month  of  the  year,  let  us  have  these  words 
teach  us  lessons  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  May  we  not  ask  at  this  anniver- 
sary time  if  it  is  true  in  the  world  at  large,  and  if  it  is  true  in  our  own  lives, 
that  the  best  is  coming  last  ?  We  are  now  drawing  very  near  to  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  Soon  1900  years  since  the  birth  of  Christ  will  have 
been  completed.  The  religion  of  Christ  has  had  time  to  accomplish  some- 
thing in  the  world  at  large  and  in  the  hearts  of  men.  If  the  ruler  of  the 
feast  were  alive  to-day  and  would  recall  not  merely  the  power  of  Jesus  at 
that  wedding  so  long  ago  in  Cana  of  Gallilee,  but  if  he  could  look  out  upon 
a  world  in  which  the  power  of  Christianity  has  been  working  for  1900  years; 
if  he  could  look  into  the  experiences  of  your  life  and  my  life  to  the  time  of 
this  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Kingston  church,  would  he  say:  'Thou 
hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now  ?  '  Let  us  ask  then  to-day:  Is  the  world 
growing  better  or  worse?  Am  I,  as  an  individual,  becoming  better,  stronger 
in  Christ  as  the  years  come  and  go?  Do  we  look  back  to-day  upon  the 
world  at  the  time  when  Christ  was  born  and  say  that  the  world  was  better 
then  than  it  is  now  ?  Roman  and  Grecian  mythology  saw  their  golden  age 
in  the  past.  The  religion  of  the  Jews  and  that  of  the  Christians  found  their 
golden  age  in  the  future,  not  in  the  past.  Adam  and  Eve  were  driven  out 
of  paradise,  but  the  prophets  and  the  psalmists  did  not  look  back  upon  the 
lost  joys  of  paradise;  they  ever  looked  'forward  to  the  transcendent  glories 
of  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah.'  We  wonder  and  are  put  to  shame  by  the 
devotion  and  courage  of  the  disciples  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  for  we  some- 
times wonder  if  we,  as  Christians,  to-day  could  endure  imprisonment  and 
martyrdom  as  they  endured.  The  earnestness  and  the  devotedness  of  the 
few — of  Paul  and  of  John,  of  Matthew  and  Mark — may  have  been  greater 
than  the  earnestness  of  Christians  to-day;  but,  nevertheless,  the  sin  of  man 
was  great  in  that  day.  The  letters  of  the  apostles  tell  of  widespread  sin  and 
guilt  on  the  part  of  man,  and  they  looked  forward  into  the  future  when 
Christ   would   have   come  again;    when   the  power  of   Christ  would  have 


-37— 

worked  in  the  world;  when  the  Gentiles  would  have  turned  unto  the  Cross 
of  Christ.  Yes;  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New  Testament,  the  golden  age  was 
to  be  in  the  future  and  not  in  the  past.  The  best  wine  of  the  feast  was  to  be 
kept  until  the  last. 

"  And  as  the  world  grows  older,  better  things  are  given  to  man.  Surelv 
in  a  material  sense  this  is  so.  Viewing  the  comforts  of  life,  the  triumphs  of 
art  and  invention,  no  man  in  his  senses  would  raiher  have  lived  in  1798  than 
in  1898.  No  man  would  want  to  place  himself  back  in  1823,  or  1698,  or  in 
the  Year  of  Our  Lord  98,  to  live  merely  regarding  the  material  comforts  of 
men.  Mother  Shipton,  who  is  said  to  have  lived  in  England  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  uttered  her  prophecy  concerning  material  things.  Living  three 
hundred  and  fifty  years  after  her  famous  prophecy  was  uttered,  let  us  notice 
how  much  of  that  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled  in  a  material  way  : 

"Carriages  without  horses  shall  go, 
And  accidents  fill  the  world  with  woe. 
Around  the  world  thoughts  shall  fly 
In  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 
Waters  shall  yet  more  wonders  do; 
Now  strange,  yet  shall  be  true. 
Through  hills  man  shall  ride 
And  DO  horse  or  ass  be  at  his  side. 
Under  water,  man  shall  walk, 
Shall  ride,  shall  read,  shall  talk; 
Iron  shall  in  the  water  float 
As  easy  as  a  boat 

Gold  shall  be  found,  and  known  and  shown. 
In  a  land  that  is  not  known. 
Fire  and  water  shall  wonders  do; 
England  at  last  admit  a  Jew. 
The  world  to  an  end  shall  come 
In  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-one.' 

"The  world  to  an  end  shall  come 
In  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-one  " 

"  This  did  not  occur,  but  much  of  the  rest  of  the  strange  prophecy  has 
occurred.  The  power  of  steam,  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  electric 
light,  Ihe  electric  motor  and  many  other  inventions  have  made  the  comforts 
of  living  greater  at  the  end  of  this  century  than  at  any  other  time  in  the 
world's  history.  It  is  glorious  to  live  at  a  time  when  thought  can  be  trans- 
mitted around  the  earth.  In  the  Midwinter  Night's  Dream,  Shakespeare 
causes  his  fancy  to  play,  and  Puck  says:  'I'll  put  a  girdle  about  the  earth 
in  forty  minutes. '  The  fancy  of  the  poet  has  almost  become  a  fact  in  sci- 
ence, for,  in  May,  1896,  at  the  electrical  exposition  in  New  York,  this  mes- 
sage was  started  around  the  world:  'God  creates,  nature  treasures,  science 
utilizes  electrical  power  for  the  grandeur  of  nations  and  the  peace  of  the 
world.'  These  words  were  started  at  8:35;  at  9:25,  just  fifty  minutes  from 
the  start,  the  receiving  instrument  clicked,  and  the  message  was  taken  ex- 
actly as  sent,  having  made  a  trip  of  27,500  miles.  Surely  it  is  more  con- 
venient to  live  in  such  a  time  than'  in  the  time  when  battles  were  fought 
since  the  opposing  armies  had  received  no  intelligence  that  a  treaty  of  peace 
was  concluded. 

"  Great  has  been  the  advance  in  science,  art  and  invention  during  the 
centiu-y  drawing  to  a  close.  But  we  would  not  dwell  upon  the  material  ad- 
vancement to-day.     As  one  sa3S,  'it  is  surely  more  convenient  to  strike  a 


light  with  a  friction  match  than  with  a  tinder  box,'  But  the  burglar  who 
uses  the  friction  match  in  the  nineteenth  century  is  just  as  much  a  criminal 
as  the  bandit  of  the  twelfth  century  who  used  the  tinder  box.  Starting  as 
we  did  to-da}'  with  the  text,  'Thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now,'  we 
would  ask  the  question,  Is  the  moral  life  of  the  world  better  as  the  years  go 
on?  Is  the  world  growing  better?  Is  it  true  that  the  good  wine  of  the  world 
is  being  kept  until  now? 

"  Let  us  look  first  at  the  trust  of  man  in  his  fellow  man.  We  look  to-day 
at  the  business  arrangements  of  the  world,  and  we  find  that  they  depend  in 
a  large  measure  upon  honor.  Edward  Everett  Hale  tells  us  that  in  the  first 
century-  in  the  days  of  Augustus  Caesar,  and  even  in  the  twelfth  century,  in 
the  days  of  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion,  the  trade  of  the  world  was  not  con- 
ducted as  it  is  to-day.  In  those  days  when  a  man  sold  his  goods  he  went 
with  his  goods  to  protect  them  and  to  see  that  he  got  a  return  for  his  goods 
when  delivered.  The  tradesman  was  a  peddler.  Think  to-day  of  the  vast 
volume  of  exchange  in  the  world  which  rests  upon  honor.  A  tradesman 
lets  his  goods  go  out  of  his  sight  and  trusts  often  simply  upon  a  promise  to 
pay.  He  sends  his  goods  to  a  distant  part  of  the  country,  or  across  wide, 
wide  seas,  and  expects  with  certainty  to  receive  a  return  from  men  he  has 
never  seen.  Is  not  this  trust  of  man  in  his  fellow  man  so  widespread  and 
so  essential  a  part  of  the  commerce  of  to-day  a  sign  that  the  world  is  better 
than  it  was?  Does  not  an  extended  system  of  business  credit  exist  to-day 
since  man  has  been  taught  by  the  religion  of  Christ  to  trust  his  fellow  man  ? 

"  Again,  a  sign  that  the  world  is  becoming  better  at  the  close  of  this 
century  is  the  interest  of  man  in  his  fellow  man.  Workers,  though  they 
may  belong  to  the  poorer  classes,  are  not  regarded  as  so  many  hands,  but  as 
souls,  as  brother  men.  A  writer,  in  the  New  York  Independent,  who  was 
asked  last  summer  to  give  the  most  striking  characteristic  of  Queen  Victo- 
ria's sixty  years  reign,  gave  the  answer  most  aptly  by  a  quotation  taken  from 
a  story  by  Lord  Beaconsfield,  the  story  of  Sybil,  placed  in  the  year  of  the 
Queen's  accession. 

"  'This  is  a  new  reign,'  said  Egremont ;  'perhaps  it  is  a  new  era.' 

"  'I  think  so,'  said  the  younger  stranger. 

"  'I  hope  so,'  said  the  older  one. 

"  'Well,  society  may  be  in  its  infancy,'  said  Egremont,  slightly  smiling, 
'but  say  what  you  like,  our  Queen  reigns  over  the  greatest  nation  that  ever 
existed.' 

"  'Which  nation  ?'  asked  the  younger  stranger,  'for  she  reigns  over  two.' 

"  The  stranger  paused;  Egremont  was  silent,  but  looked  inquiringly. 

"  'Yes,  resumed  the  younger  stranger,  after  a  moment's  interval,  two 
nations;  between  whom  there  is  no  intercourse  and  no  sympathy;  who  are 
as  ignorant  of  each  other's  habits,  thoughts  and  feelings  as  if  they  were 
dwellers  in  different  zones,  or  inhabitants  of  different  planets,  who  are 
formed  by  a  different  breeding,  are  fed  by  a  different  food,  are  ordered  by 
different  manners,  and  are  not  governed  by  the  same  laws.' 

"  'You  speak  of,'  said  Egremont,  hesitatingly. 

"  'The  rich  and  the  poor.' 

"  A  sure  sign  that  the  world  is  becoming  better  to-day  is  the  interest  of 
these  two  nations,  the  interest  of  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  one  in  the  other. 
Years  ago  nobody  outside  of  a  few  distressed  himself  about  the  condition  of 


the  poor.  Now  it  is  a  healthy  sign  that  men  do  distress  themselves;  'that 
children  are  being  freed  from  degrading  toil;  that  sympathy  with  the  suffer- 
ing and  poor  is  more  deep  and  full.'  The  world  has  still  many  problems  to 
solve,  but  that  the  world  has  begun  in  earnest  to  work  upon  the  solution  of 
its  problems  is  a  most  healthful  sign  of  the  progress  of  the  times.  The 
year  1S98  has  granted  unto  history  the  spectacle  of  a  great  nation  going 
forth  in  behalf  of  others,  ready  to  make  the  sacrifice  of  war,  not  for  itself, 
but  for  others. 

"  In  seeking  the  solution  of  these  problems  there  is  a  larger  fraternal 
spirit  among  men  than  ever  before.  We  are  told:  'That  once  upon  a  large 
ocean  steamer,  with  seven  hundred  passengers  from  different  classes  of  soci- 
ety, there  came  a  sudden  calamity.  The  main  shaft  of  the  engine  broke; 
great  holes  were  made  in  the  bottom  of  the  vessel,  and  three  compartments 
were  filled  with  water.  There  was  extreme  danger  that  all  on  board  would 
perish.  All  classes  mingled  freely.  Of  course  there  was  fear;  but  during 
all  the  time  of  great  trial  the  people  were  kind  to  one  another.  Prejudices 
of  race  and  condition  did  not  appear  to  hinder  that  spirit  of  the  Great  Mas- 
ter, which  teaches  men  to  be  helpful  one  to  the  other.'  I  believe  that  scene 
is  characteristic  of  the  race  at  large.  Great  trials  will  come  to  men,  but  in 
the  midst  of  it  all  people  will  seek  to  be  helpful  to  the  other.  The  devel- 
opment of  the  altruistic  feeling  on  the  part  of  humanity  tells  us  that  the 
world  is  growing  better  and  not  worse. 

"  Many  are  the  ways  in  which  we  might  ask  you  to  verify  the  truth, 
that  since  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ  in  Bethlehem,  the  world  is  growing 
better. 

"  Of  course,  if  we  look  for  it,  we  can  find  much  that  is  evil,  much  of 
sin  and  crime  in  the  world;  but  also  there  is  much  that  is  good  and  pure. 
An  English  critic,  Mr.  Stead,  has  written  strongly  of  the  sin  in  New  York 
and  Chicago;  nevertheless  I  doubt  not  but  that  much  concerning  the  higher 
and  better  life  of  these  two  cities  could  be  written,  of  the  influence  of  the 
churches  in  these  cities,  teaching  a  moral  code  wholesome  alike  for  body 
and  soul;  telling  man  of  his  relation  to  his  fellow  man.  We  might  also 
look  at  the  care  of  the  sick  in  the  hospitals  of  these  cities,  of  the  care  of 
the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  dumb,  the  lame  and  the  insane.  We  might  glance 
at  the  higher  life  of  these  cities  as  manifested  in  the  libraries  and  galleries; 
we  might,  in  passing,  notice  the  public  school  system,  where  an  education 
is  placed  within  the  reach  of  all  the  children.  Yes,  there  is  much  that  is 
good  to  be  found  by  him  who  will  only  seek  for  the  good. 

"If  we  have  our  minds  open  we  can  behold  the  progress  of  the  world 
on  all  sides.  As  you  go  into  Greensburg,  your  county  seat,  you  behold  the 
tower  of  }'Our  court-house.  Think  how  the  justice  administered  in  that 
court-house  has  been  transformed  by  the  influence  of  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem. 
The  justice  administered  there  has  a  theory  of  family  life  that  did  not  come 
from  Roman  jurisprudence,  but  from  the  commandments  of  Moses  and  from 
the  treasure  of  Christian  truth  found  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  No  plea  at  all 
could  be  heard  in  that  court-house  of  the  absolute  ownership  of  the  man 
over  the  woman  that  can  be  heard  to-day  in  a  JNIohammedan  or  Turkish  civ- 
ilization. Never  for  a  moment  in  that  court-house  can  be  advanced  to-day 
pleas  for  the  justification  of  human  slavery.  Who  would  maintain  in  that 
court-house  the  principle  of  the  absolute  rights  of  a  ruler,  that  a  ruler  or  king 


—40— 

had  absolute  ownership  over  his  subjects  and  their  belongings?  Many  are 
the  principles  of  justice  administered  to-day  in  your  court-house,  the  inspi- 
ration of  which  is  found  in  the  religion  of  Christ, 

"  Great  is  the  sinfuhiess  of  to-day,  but  there  were  sins  in  the  time  of 
the  Apostle  Paul,  for  which  we  have  no  names  to-day.  Read  the  first  chap- 
ter of  Romans  and  you  will  know  the  condition  of  the  world  in  the  time  of 
the  Apostle  Paul.  And  we  believe  that  since  certain  sins  are  unknown  the 
condition  of  the  world  is  better  to-day.  It  is  said  that  'on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Erie  you  can  see  that  the  land  relatively  to  the  water  is  rising,  or  that  the 
•water  if  receding  as  time  rolls  on.  Three  or  four  parallel  ridges  of  sand 
mark  the  successive  boundaries  of  the  lake,  and  now  towns  and  villages  and 
railways  appear,  and  thousands  of  acres  of  farm  lands  where  once  only  a 
waste  of  "vater  appeared.'  So  it  is  with  the  moral  conditions  of  mankind. 
Where  once  there  was  a  waste  of  human  slavery  there  now  arise  the  dignity 
and  worth  of  true  manhood;  where  once  there  were  sins,  names  for  which 
we  do  not  have;  interest  for  man,  the  care  and  culture  of  men,  these  things 
have  supplanted  evil  things,  and  the  world  is  growing  better,  not  worse. 
As  we  stand  at  this  anniversary  time  in  the  last  month  of  the  year  1898  and 
view  the  progress  of  mankind,  are  not  the  words  of  the  pastor  of  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers  being  fulfilled,  for  as  they  sailed  from  Delft  in  1620  he  said:  'I 
am  convinced  that  the  Lord  hath  yet  more  truth  for  us,  yet  to  break  forth 
out  of  His  Holy  Word.'  That  truth  is  breaking  forth  upon  us,  and  God  will 
ever  have  a  higher,  better,  nobler  life  for  those  of  his  children  who  choose 
to  place  themselves  in  line  with  that  which  He  is  ever  revealing  to  the  chil- 
dren of  men.  The  question  for  you  and  me  to  ask  at  this  anniversary  time 
is:  'Am  I  in  line  with  God's  purposes  for  his  children,  am  I  being  exalted 
and  blessed  by  his  purposes,  or  are  the  years  coming  and  going,  yesterday 
1897,  to-day  1898,  to-morrow  1899,  without  my  life  being  a  blessing  to  God 
and  to  mankind?  Am  I  setting  myself  against  Jesus  Christ,  the  Revealer  of 
God's  will?  Have  I  confessed  Him  before  men?'  As  we  have  tried  to  an- 
swer the  question  that  God  is  causing  His  world  to  become  better,  may  each 
of  us  try  to  answer  to-day  a  more  practical  question,  which  is.  Am  I  becom- 
ing better?  As  I  grow  older  is  the  best  wine  being  kept  for  me  at  the 
feast's  end? 

"  It  is  true  that  God  intends  life  to  become  better,  richer  and  deeper  as 
life  grows  old.  The  literature  of  to-day  calls  childhood  'The  Golden  Age,' 
but  Kenneth  Grahame,  Barrie  and  Stevenson,  we  think,  are  mistaken. 
Childhood  is  not  the  richest,  the  best  time  of  life.  The  best  time  of  life  for 
the  Christian  should  be  the  time  when  life  is  rich  with  past  experiences. 
The  golden  wedding  is  placed  after  fifty  years  of  married  life  in  Christian 
lands,  the  diamond  in  still  later  years;  not  because  the  husband  and  wife 
have  many  more  years  in  which  to  enjoy  either  gold  or  diamonds,  but  be- 
cause gold  and  diamonds  symbolize  best  the  richness  of  their  love  together 
during  many  years,  and  that  the  golden  time  is  at  the  end  and  not  at  the 
beginning  of  their  days.  Is  it  not  true  with  the  religion  of  Christ  that  the 
best  comes  as  life  becomes  older?  The  man  of  the  world  says,  'Let  me  get 
all  out  of  life  now.  Soon  degenerate  days  will  come.  I  am  sure  only  of 
this  present  day.  Let  me  get  all  I  can  out  of  it.  Old  age  must  be  very 
dreary.and  desolate.  Therefore,  I  will  dissipate  now  and  get  all  I  can  with- 
out regard  to  old  age  or  to  a  life  beyond  the  grave.'     This  may  be  the  view 


—41— 

of  the  man  of  the  world,  of  that  one  who  is  not  a  Christian.  But  said 
Phillips  Brooks,  in  a  sermon  upon  the  text  of  to-day,  to  which  I  am 
indebted,  'The  essence  of  Christianity  is  to  believe  that  the  world  is 
growing  better;  that  the  life  of  man  is  growing  better  under  the  discipHne 
of  Christ.  It  is  calm  and  hopeful  with  its  great  assurances.  It  sets  the  old 
man,  at  the  end  of  his  career,  in  the  midst  of  fulfilled  promises  and  finished 
educations,  splendidly  saying,  as  he  looks  back  over  his  life,  "It  has  all 
been  good,  but  this  is  the  best  of  all.  Thou,  O  Christ,  O  Master,  hast 'kept 
the  good  wine  until  now."  ' 

"  As  with  the  world  at  large,  so  God  intends  it  to  be  with  each  human 
life.  Looking  back  to-day  at  the  close  of  the  iiiaeteenth  century,  we  can 
not  think  of  any  century  that  has  been  better  than  this  century.  With  your 
knowledge  of  history,  will  you  say  to-day  that  you  would  rather  have  lived 
in  any  previous  century  than  this,  since  that  was  a  better  century?  So,  also, 
God  intends  life  to  become  better,  richer  to  us  as  the  years  are  better.  As  a 
Christian  man  or  woman  looking  back  over  your  years  you  ought  not  to  be 
able  to  say  that  any  previous  year  was  better  than  this  year.  In  the  allotted 
course  of  human  life,  three  score  and  ten,  God  grants  unto  soul  and 
body  many  years  in  this  world.  Is  it  not  a  wonderful  thing  that  a  human 
body,  with  its  delicate  organization,  should  go  on  sleeping  and  working, 
toiling  and  breathing,  without  intermission  and  without  rest,  for  seventy, 
eighty,  ninety  years?  Could  any  machine  ever  constructed  by  man  sustain 
such  a  constant,  uninterrupted  action  for  that  length  of  time?  If  God  per- 
mits the  machine  to  run  so  long  is  there  not  a  purpose  in  the  running?  If 
the  faith  of  man  is  ever  strong  in  him,  he  grants  richer,  deeper  experi- 
ences to  the  soul  as  each  year  comes  and  goes.  I  believe  it  is  so.  Did  not 
life  mean  more  to  Gladstone  in  his  old  age  than  it  did  in  the  year  1819  to 
Gladstone,  the  boy,  at  ten  years  of  age?  Our  Savior  did  not  live  to  be  an  old 
man,  but  we  read,  as  the  years  came  and  passed  away,  that  he  'increased  in 
wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favor  with  God  and  man.'  Life  was  richer  and 
deeper  to  Jesus  Christ  at  Nazareth,  on  the  sea  of  Galilee,  at  Gethsemane,  in 
Jerusalem,  and  on  Calvary  than  it  was  to  Him  as  a  babe  in  Bethlehem.  As 
God  gave  to  His  own  Son,  so  to  all  his  children  in  Jesus  Christ  He  will 
ever  give  a  richer,  deeper  knowledge  of  Himself  as  the  years  come  and  go. 
As  a  father,  if  I  have  a  valuable  watch  I  cannot  give  it  to  my  little  boy  until  my 
boy  understands  the  value  of  the  watch  and  knows  how  to  take  care  of  it. 
Your  Father  in  heaven  cannot  give  His  blessings  to  His  child  until  that  child 
is  ready  by  discipline,  by  faith,  by  trust  made  stronger,  and  by  experience 
made  deeper,  to  receive  His  blessings.  At  this  season  of  the  giving  of  gifts, 
you  might  rush  out  into  the  street  and  thrust  a  ten-dollar  bill  into  a  man's 
hands,  saying,  '  Here,  this  is  yours.'  You  could  then  leave  him  in  full  pos- 
session of  the  bill.  But  you  cannot  rush  up  to  that  man  and  thrust  a  char- 
acter upon  him.  To  gain  a  character,  to  gain  a  sure  and  constant  faith,  to 
know  the  promises  of  God  as  tried  and  not  found  wanting,  the  years  must 
come  and  go.  And  tell  me,  you  of  middle  age  and  you  of  old  age,  you  who 
have  had  faith  in  your  Master,  lo  these  many  years,  is  not  the  best  wine, 
that  is,  the  strongest  hope,  the  most  abiding  faith  at  the  feast's  end? 
Blessed  it  is  to  see  an  aged  Christian  saying,  after  all  the  trials  and  sorrows 
of  life,  '  Yes,  though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  Him.'  Contrast  with  this, 
the  life  of  one  who  has  dissipated  in  youth  and  lived  a  life  of  sin,  and  then 


—42- 

Hved  fifty,  sixty,  seventy  years  without  faith  and  without  prayer,  without 
God  in  the  world.  And  then  he  passes  into  eternity  without  hope.  The  life 
of  sin  has  no  happy  old  men  ;  and  the  word  of  God  tells  that  they  are  not 
happy  in  the  world  beyond.  But  in  the  world  beyond,  for  him  who  lives 
with  faith  in  Christ  there  is  joy.  There,  there,  the  good  wine  is  kept.  The 
true  completion  of  this  life  is  in  the  life  to  come.  '  I  will  come  again  and 
receive  you  to  myself.'  'I  will  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  forever.' 
'And  so  shall  we  be  ever  with  the  Lord.'  '  Now  we  see  through  a  glass  darkly, 
but  then  face  to  face.'  'It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  but  we  know 
that  when  He  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him.'  '  Let  not  your  heart  be 
troubled.  Ye  believe  in  God.  Believe  also  in  me.  In  my  Father's  house 
are  many  mansions.  If  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you.  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you,  and  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  will  come 
again  and  receive  you  unto  myself  ;  that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also.' 
All  these  words  look  forward.  They  tell  of  that  which  Jesus  has  in  store  for 
us.  Let  us  realize  that  many  are  the  blessings  there,  as  many  and  great  have 
been  the  blessings  here.  We  are  all  nearing  that  home  beyond.  Some  have 
passed  into  His  eternal  glory  this  year.  For  some,  the  voyage  of  life  in 
this  world  may  close  next  year.  Some  of  our  aged  fathers  and  mothers  feel 
that  it  is  not  long  now  with  them.  Weakened  physical  health,  faltering 
step,  diminished  physical  vigor,  tell  that  the  time  of  departure  is  near  at 
hand.  But  the  hope  of  the  soul  is  strong  ;  God  has  been  precious  to  them 
in  the  past,  and  they  believe  that  He  has  still  more  glory  to  reveal  unto 
them.  Even  now  they  are  looking  forward  with  anticipation  to  the  life 
beyond. 

"  When  death  was  before  Charles  Kingsley,  he  said,  'God  forgive  me, 
but  I  look  forward  to  it  with  intense  and  reverent  curiosity.'  Did  not  his 
curiosity  fulfill  his  human  nature,  knowing  that  as  God  had  dealt  with  him 
in  the  past  so  would  He  deal  with  him  in  the  future,  aud  still  greater  glor)^ 
would  be  manifested  unto  him?  After  a  long  ocean  vo3-age,  a*^ter  the  ship 
has  been  out  many  days,  when  she  is  coming  near  the  port  and  the  harbor> 
the  passengers  are  all  interested  in  the  new  land;  in  that  which  the  new  and 
hitherto  unknown  land  will  have  in  store  for  them.  They  speak  of  their 
preparation  for  landing,  of  their  interest  of  the  new  life  which  will  be  on 
the  shore.  On  this  anniversary  day  we  are  all  nearing  port;  we  are  all  one 
year  nearer.  Some  are  twenty,  thirty,  forty,  fifty,  sixty,  seventy,  eighty 
years  nearer  than  ever  before.  Perhaps  even  next  year  the  glory  of  that 
port  to  which  we  are  journeying  will  be  revealed  to  us.  May  we  so  live 
during  the  voyage  that  much  of  His  love  can  be  revealed  now,  and  we  may 
rest  assured  that  new  and  greater  things  shall  be  in  store  for  us  there.  There 
we  shall  be  with  Jesus  Christ ;  there  we  shall  see  loved  ones  who  have  gone 
before.  There,  there  shall  be  no  more  pain,  no  more  sin.  There  we  shall  for- 
ever be  with  the  Lord  in  the  city  of  our  God.  There,  we  believe  that  the  words 
of  the  ruler  of  the  feast  unto  the  bridegroom  will  be  fully  realized  by  each 
child  of  God.     '  Thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now.'  " 


EXTRACTS  FROM  LETTERS. 

Letter  from  Mrs.  Carpenter  and  Mrs.  Mannon,  daughters  of 
Rev.  Daniel  Gilmer. 

We  feel  that  we  are  paying  a  tribute  of  affection  and  respect  to  our 
father's  memory  in  recalling  the  membership  and  work  of  the  Kingston 
church  during  the  years  of  his  pastorate.  It  also  gives  us  pleasure  to  call  to 
mind  the  friends  of  our  youth,  though  many  of  them,  especially  the  older 
members  of  the  church,  are  resting  from  their  earthly  labors.  We  remember 
them  as  they  filled  their  places  in  the  old  frame  church,  forty  years  ago. 
Of  your  pastor  at  that  time,  we  will  only  say,  in  the  words  of  a  member  of 
your  church,  "  I  remember  him  as  an  honest,  fearless  defender  of  the  truth, 
and  always  foremost  in  the  ranks." 

One  who  was  always  prominent  in  good  works  was  Uncle  Tommy  Hamil- 
ton, an  elder  at  that  time,  for  whom  father  had  a  warm  affection.  He  spoke 
of  him  as  one  of  the  most  conscientious  men  he  ever  knew.  Uncle  John 
McCoy  was  another,  always  in  his  place  at  the  Sunday  services  and  prayer- 
meeting,  while  on  week  days  he  made  visits  among  the  different  homes, 
where  he  was  always  welcome  on  account  of  his  genial  good  nature  and 
pleasant  manner.  Uncle  Alex  McCoy  led  the  music  the  first  two  or  three 
years  we  were  at  Kingston.  Doubtless  many  will  remember  how  he  led  off  on 
the  good  old  tunes.  Coronation,  Ortonville,  Balerma,  and  many  others.  Later 
on,  we  had  a  singing  school  taught  by  Mr.  Harvey,  and  shortly  after,  John 
Robison  became  the  leader  of  the  church  music.  Soon  after  he  took  charge 
of  the  music,  the  synod  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  church  met  at  Kingston. 
As  this  was  an  important  occasion,  the  young  people  formed  a  choir  and  sang 
set  pieces  and  anthems,  as  well  as  the  regular  psalms  and  hymns.  As  there 
were  a  great  many  young  people  in  the  church,  the  social  element  was  an 
important  factor.  We  remember  no  other  place  where  there  were  so  many 
natural  advantages  for  innocent  amusements.  The  blue-grass  pastures, 
shaded  by  forest  trees,  furnished  ideal  places  for  picnics  in  summer  ;  and  as 
with  well-filled  baskets  we  drove  through  the  shady  lanes  to  some  common 
meeting-place  for  the  young  people  of  the  neighborhood,  we  enjoyed  life  in 
full  measure.  On  winter  nights  we  went  sleighing  and  gathered  in  some  one 
of  the  numerous  homes,  where  we  always  met  a  hearty  welcome,  and  beside 
the  wide  fireplace,  and  often  overflowing  from  the  living-room  into  other 
rooms,  we  enjoyed  ourselves  in  many  ways  known  to  young  people  of  that 
day.  During  the  winter  of  1856-57,  there  was  serious  apprehension  on  the 
part  of  pastor  and  elders  that  some  of  the  younger  members  were  indulging 
in  amusements  not  consistent  with  church  membership.  There  was  some 
talk  of  discipline,  but  Uncle  Tommy  Hamilton  plead  for  a  special  effort  to 
bring  the  young  people  back  to  their  first  love.  During  the  preceding  sum- 
mer, a  course  of  lectures  from  the  Hebrews  had  been  given  by  the  pastor, 
which  were  no  doubt  scholarly  and  edifying  to  the  older  members,  but  at 
this  time  a  different  direction  was  given  the  preaching  of  the  word,  and 
God's  love  and  mercy  were  feelingly  presented.  These  sermons,  supple- 
mented by  the  prayers  of  such  men  as  Uncle  Tommy  Hamilton  and  others, 
brought  about  the  desired  result  and  the  wandering  ones  returned  to  the 


—44— 

fold.  Thus  forty  years  ago  in  the  old  frame  church  at  Kingston  was  preached 
the  same  truth,  now  preached  from  many  pulpits  in  our  land  as  the  new  the- 
ology, having  for  its  foundation,  "  God  is  love." 

So  from  the  Pacific  coast,  we  send  words  of  greeting,  with  kind  remem- 
brances of  the  past  and  words  of  hope  and  good  cheer  for  the  future.  That 
you  may  live  up  to  the  high  standard  set  by  your  forefathers,  and  like  them, 
when  your  work  is  ended,  enter  into  the  joys  of  eternal  life,  is  the  sincere 
wish  of  your  old-time  friends.^ 

Helena  Gilmer  Mannon,  Pasadena,  Cal. 

Mary  Gilmer  Carpenter,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 


ToPEKA,  Kansas,  November  12,  1898. 

3fy  Dear  Friends :  I  send  you  greetings  on  this  interesting  anniversary. 
Would  that  I  might  be  with  you  and  give  them  in  person. 

Our  fathers  builded  well.  All  honor  to  their  memory.  My  earliest 
recollection  is  of  the  church  built  of  logs.  Now  you  have  the  beautiful, 
modern  church,  with  its  spire  pointing  heavenward.  Then  we  went  to  Sun- 
day-school in  the  morning,  followed  by  two  long  services  with  an  intermission 
between.  Later,  at  home  in  the  evening  the  catechism  was  recited.  Now> 
in  this  fast  age,  this  would  be  called  barbarous.  But  I  do  not  remember  of 
dreading  the  day,  with  all  its  lengthy  services. 

I  have  many  tender  memories  connected  with  the  Kingston  church. 
There,  in  my  girlhood,  I  found  my  Saviour,  who  is  more  and  more  precious 
as  the  years  go  by.  There,  later  on,  I  gave  my  children  to  God  in  baptism, 
and  in  their  maturer  years  they  all  came  into  full  membership  in  the 
church.  Some  of  them  are  privileged  to  tell  "the  old,  old  story  of  Jesus 
and  His  love  "  to  those  who  have  never  heard.  There,  too,  resting  in  the 
silent  city  near  by,  lies  the  earthly  tabernacle  of  beloved  husband,  father, 
mother  and  kindred  dear,  awaiting  the  resurrection.  Also  many  memories 
come  of  the  loved,  faithful  pastor  of  so  many  years,  going  in  and  out  among 
us  in  all  our  joys  and  in  all  our  sorrows.  What  could  be  more  fitting  than 
that  he  should  be  with  you  on  this  occasion  ?  No  one  could  fill  the  place  so 
well.  May  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  abide  on  him  and  his,  wherever  their 
lot  is  cast.  Also  in  the  dear  old  church,  may  his  banner  ever  her  belove. 
Always  yours  very  sincerely, 

Mrs.  N.  H.  Adams. 


Kingman,  Kansas,  December  13,  1S98. 

My  first  distinct  recollection  of  the  church  is,  when  I  was  quite  a  child, 
we  worshiped  in  the  little  frame  church  and  Rev.  Benj.  Nyce  was  pastor,  I 
do  not  remember  much  about  the  services,  except  the  Sunday-school.  I, 
with  my  sister  and  cousins,  in  company  with  Grandfather  Donnell,  walked 
to  Sunday-school  in  nice  weather,  and  rode  home  with  the  family  after 
church .  That  was  the  custom  in  those  days.  Sunday-school  was  always  at 
9:00  o'clock,  and  I  think  there  were  never  any  tardy  ones. 

My  teacher  was  Miss  Margaret  Hamilton,  afterward  Mrs.  McCoy.  To 
me  she  was  the  most  beautiful  and  best  woman  in  the  world.  Later,  it  was 
her  sister  Nancy  who  became  Mrs.  Adams  ;  and  sometimes  Melissa  Hamilton, 
afterward  Mrs.  Nyce,  was  my  teacher.     Mr.  Nyce  made  the  Sunday-school 


REV.  HARRY  NYCE. 


very  attractive  by  his  talks  to  children.  They  were  principally  stories  from 
the  Bible,  told  in  a  very  charming  way.  I  was  so  interested  and  impressed 
that  I  became  a  Bible  student.  As  I  grew  older,  I  found  much  in  the  Bible 
to  interest  me  besides  stories.  I  remember  in  particular  hearing  him  tell  the 
story  of  Elijah  meeting  the  prophets  of  Baal,  and  calling  down  fire  from 
heaven  to  consume  the  sacrifice.     I.  Kings,  iSth  chapter. 

Mr.  Nyce  had  the  faculty  of  making  friends  with  the  children,  and  I 
always  greeted  with  delight  his  visits  to  our  home.  He  would  take  me  on 
his  kni  e  and  tell  me  some  beautiful  story,  and  then  laugh  so  gleefully  that 
it  dispelled  my  shyness  and  established  a  confidence,  and  he  was  ever  after- 
ward my  ideal  of  a  Christian  gentleman.  I  am  sure  a  friendship  began  then 
that  in  later  years,  as  we  stood  in  the  relation  of  teacher  and  pupil,  became 
real,  and  which  lasted  as  long  as  he  lived,  as  his  occasional  letters  and 
papers,  with  especially  marked  columns,  sent  to  me  in  my  Western  home 
years  afterward  testified.  He  was  eminently  a  friend  of  young  people,  and 
during  his  second  pastorate  in  the  church  he  kept  up  a  Bible  class  for  the 
young  people  at  4:03  o'clock  Sunday  afternoon  during  the  winter  months, 
and  made  it  so  interesting  that  it  was  always  well  attended. 

I  also  remember,  as  they  came  in  succession,  Rev.  Adams,  Joseph  Mon- 
fort,  Mr.  King  and  Mr.  Stryker.  To  my  mind,  they  were  very  different  and 
had  their  own  peculiar  styles  of  preaching.  I  shall  never  forget  Mr  Mon- 
fort's  beautiful  singing.  He  sang  the  hymn  beginning  "Servant  of  God, 
well  done  ;  rest  from  thy  loved  employ,"  at  Grandfather  Donnell's  funeral, 
and  as  he  sat  in  the  pulpit  and  sang  the  entire  hymn  alone,  I  thought  it 
beautiful. 

Among  the  ministers'  wives  I  had  some  warm  friends,  one  of  whom  was 
Mrs.  Stryker.  Many  a  time  have  I,  as  a  school-girl,  stayed  over  night  with 
her  for  company  when  Mr.  Stryker  was  gone  to  synod  or  Presbytery.  She 
was  a  lady  of  culture,  and  exerted  a  good  influence  over  me.  I  remember 
Mr.  Cable  more  particularly  in  regard  to  the  respect  and  friendship  he  always 
extended  to  Grandfather  Donnell  than  from  anything  else.  He  often  visited 
Grandfather,  and  I  was  quite  frequently  an  interested  listener,  as  they  talked 
on  religious  and  church  matters.     In  my  estimation,  he  was  a  learned  man. 

Among  the  pleasant  recollections  of  those  days,  I  recall  the  annual  visits 
of  Rev.  Henry  Little,  of  Madison,  at  which  times  we  often  had  a  series  of 
meetings,  and  I  shall  always  remember  his  kind,  earnest  appeals  to  sinners, 
and  especially  to  young  people. 

Our  prayer-meetings  in  those  early  days  were  quite  a  feature  of  the 
church.  It  it  true,  I  believe,  that  there  never  was  much  of  a  crowd  there, 
but  there  were  a  few  who  were  always  present,  rain  or  shine,  summer  and 
winter.  Among  the  faithful  were  Uncle  Tommy  Hamilton,  Uncle  J.  C.  Mc- 
Coy, Uncle  Andy  Robison  and  Uncle  Addison  Donnell.  The  young  people 
had  a  habit  of  attending  quite  regularly,  and  were  respectful  listeners, 
although  they  took  no  active  part  except  in  the  singing.  Uncle  Tommy 
Hamilton  and  J.  C.  McCoy  always  prayed,  and  others  as  they  were  called 
upon.  The  services,  which  never  lasted  over  an  hour,  were  as  genuinely  en- 
joyed by  those  present  as  if  the  house  had  been  well  filled,  and  in  fact  I  think 
Uncle  Tommy  Hamilton  was  serenely  unconscious  of  the  empty  seats,  and  I 
used  to  think  he  would  have  gone  ahead  with  the  meeting  if  there  had  been 
no  one  present  to  take  part  but  himself. 


—47— 

In  the  year  1848,  during  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  B.  PVanklin,  Rev.  Father 
Dickey  conducted  a  revival  meeting,  and  on  the  26th  day  of  February  of  that 
year,  I  and  twelve  other  young  people  united  with  the  church.  I  do  not  now 
remember  who  they  were  except  my  sister,  Martha  Donnell,  Kate  McCoy 
and  Samuel  H.  Hamilton.  I  was  younger  than  any  of  them,  and  was  strongly 
advised  by  a  friend  not  to  do  so  foolish  a  thing  as  to  join  the  church.  I  might 
try  to  be  good  and  after  while  become  a  Christian,  but  it  was  not  the  proper 
thing  to  take  children  into  the  church.  I  did  not  take  that  view  of  the  case, 
and  was  received  with  the  others. 

I  cannot  close  this  paper  without  paying  a  loving  tribute  to  one  of  my 
Sunday-school  teachers,  Mrs.  Eliza  Jane  Thomson,  who  taught  a  class  of 
girls,  of  which  I  was  one,  for  several  years  in  the  old  brick  church.  During 
that  time  I  do  not  remember  of  her  being  absent  even  once,  and  she  was 
always  on  time.  How  faithful  and  patient  she  was  !  And  I  have  sometimes 
thought  how  dull  she  must  have  thought  us,  for  we  allowed  her  to  do  all  the 
talking.  We  would  commit  verses  and  recite  whole  chapters  from  memory, 
and  do  anything  she  required,  but  we  did  not  seem  to  answer  questions  very 
well ;  but  we  remembered  much  of  what  she  taught,  and  it  strongly  influenced 
for  good  our  after  lives.  Zerelda  Donneli,  Lawson. 


LOCKPORT,  N.  Y.,  December  8,  1898. 

To  the  Pastor  and  IMevibers  of  the  Dear  Church  at  Kingston  :  It  is  a  joj- 
to  me  to  send  a  letter  to  you  to-day,  a  regret  that  I  cannot  intrude  my  pres- 
ence. I  know  that  the  occasion  will  be  like  one  of  Sam  Weller's  muffins, 
"  very  fillin'  for  the  price."  My  brother,  Harry,  is  doubtless  with  you  ;  he 
is  big  enough  for  two,  and  I  know,  more  full  of  feelings  than  fluent  speech. 
Two  of  the  Nyces  have  had  the  honor  of  serving  the  dear  church,  and  my  time 
may  yet  come  when  you  can't  get  anybody  else. 

I  owe  more  to  the  Kingston  church  than  to  any  other.  It  was  there  I 
learned  my  first  religious  teaching,  and  found  the  way  to  our  blessed  Christ ; 
it  is  there,  too,  I  hope  to  be  taken  and  laid  to  rest  with  the  dear  ones  across 
the  way  when  my  work  is  done.  Some  of  my  dearest  childhood  memories  are 
connected  with  the  old  church.  I  can  see  the  Rankins  cross  the  road,  file  in 
one  by  one,  usually  more  than  less.  A  kindly  word  from  the  honored  and 
faithful  Rev.  A.  T.  Rankin,  or  a  gentle  admonition  from  him,  that  Sunday 
is  not  the  day  to  sit  on  the  fence  and  whistle.  "Boys,  it  is  time  for  the 
service  to  begin."  I  remember  well  the  organ  and  choir  in  the  middle  of 
the  church  ;  the  impression  made  upon  my  child  ear  by  John  Robison's  voice 
still  remains.  James  and  Marshall  and  Cyrus  Hamilton  were  to  me  patri- 
archs in  those  days.  In  building  the  new  church,  I  thought  that  Lowry 
Donnell  was  the  master  builder  and  architect  of  the  world.  I  have  since  seen 
St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  and  the  Milan  and  Cologne's  Cathedrals.  Yet  they  were 
not  so  beautiful  as  was  to  the  child  mind  the  dear  church  at  home. 

What  a  noble  record  it  has  had  ;  what  influences  have  gone  from  it ; 
how  the  best  and  tenderest  experiences  of  our  lives  have  been  received  there  ! 
May  she,  under  her  faithful  pastor  and  your  consecrated  co-operation,  con- 
tinue to  be  the  sanctifior  of  the  community,  the  comfort  of  the  sorrowing, 
the  light  to  the  darkened,  the  hope  to  the  penitent,  ever  the  dwelling  of  the 
living  God.  Yours  in  the  noblest  service, 

Benj.  M.  Nyce. 


REV.  R.  A.  BARTLETT. 


Springdale,  Ark.,  December  14,  1898. 

Dear  Brother  Bartlett :  Your  letter  of  November  18th,  inviting  me  to 
attend  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  the  Kingston  Church,  was  duly  re- 
ceived. It  found  me  in  very  poor  health,  added  to  the  natural  infirmity 
ordinarily  weighing  on  a  man  of  eighty-one  years.  But  as  you  had  kindly 
given  me  plenty  of  time,  I  hoped  for  better  health  and  intended  to  respond, 
recalling  incidents,  events  and  persons,  the  kind  of  material  with  which  it 
was  organized,  trained  mostly  by  that  orthodox,  consecrated  minister.  Rev. 
John  Rankin.  I  should  tell  how  it  prospered,  largely  by  emigration,  under 
that  good  Brother  Lowry,  and  how  subsequently,  and  as  I  think,  for  want 
of  true  Christian  forbearance  about  non-essentials,  animosities  were  aroused, 
feelings  alienated,  heated  controversies. 

The  language  was  not  such  as  Job  6:25  describes.  How  forcible  are 
right  words  !  They  forgot  "A  soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath."  The  fruit  of 
all  this  was  division.  And  then  two  churches,  composed  largely  of  good, 
Christian  people,  orthodox,  pious  and  more  than  average  mental  ability. 

My  work  began  in  1844  and  continued  eight  years,  the  longest  pastorate, 
I  think,  up  to  that  date,  and  in  that  branch  up  to  the  reunion.  The  material 
to  build  from  outside  of  our  families  was  small,  but  we  had  accessions  at 
almost  every  communion.  We  had  good  men  on  both  sides  with  imperfec- 
tions, Father  Samuel  Donnell,  prominent  in  the  other  branch,  and  Robert 
Hamilton  and  wife  in  ours. 

I  felt  so  miserable  when  beginning  to  write  that  I  only  intended  to  ac- 
knowledge your  invitation.  It  would  be  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  be  with 
you.  I  trust  you  will  have  a  better  presence,  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  have  a  rich 
baptism.  Sincerely  yours, 

John  C.  King. 


Phili^ipsburg,  Kan.,  December  13,  1898. 
REV  R.  A.  Bartlett  : 

Dear  Brother :  Your  fraternal  letter,  inviting  me  to  attend  the  seventy- 
fifth  anniversary  of  the  Kingston  (Ind.)  church  the  i8th  instant,  came  duly 
to  hand.  It  will  not  be  possible  for  me,  on  account  of  distance,  to  be  present 
at  the  great  meeting  anticipated.  I  have  remembered  the  Kingston  church 
with  feelings  of  great  kindness.     It  was  my  first  charge. 

The  Concord  church  was  united  with  it,  having  half  the  time.  The 
Kingston  church  paid  $400  and  the  Concord  church  |200  of  the  salary.  The 
Sabbath  morning  of  my  first  appearance  before  the  church  was  dark  and 
rainy,  April,  1S57.  The  text  was  Acts  24:  25  ;  the  sermon  was  extemporane- 
ous. When  I  came  out  of  the  church,  some  of  the  brethren  met  me  in  the 
yard  and  inquired  "  What  salary  would  you  expect  for  preaching  here  and 
at  Concord  per  year?"  My  answer  was  |;6oo.  W.  W.  Hamilton  replied, 
"  You  shall  have  it."  I  spent  two  years  in  peace  and  hard  work.  The  mem- 
bers were  of  the  old,  substantial  type,  faithful  and  true.  The  Hamiltons, 
the  Antrobuses,  the  Grahams,  the  Donnells,  the  Hopkinses,  the  Lowes  and 
the  Robisons,  all  of  blessed  memory,  were  at  Kingston  in  my  day.  Mrs. 
Adams,  who  used  to  live  at  McCoy's  Station,  took  tea  at  our  house  a  few 
years  ago  at  Wamego,  Kas. ,  said  she  remembered  me  at  Kingston,  and  thought 
me  quite  a  dude.  I  took  dinner  during  the  meeting  of  synod  at  Hutchinson 
at  Dr.  Ardery's.     His  wife  was  a  Reeder,  daughter  of  one  of  the  elders  at 


—50— 

Concord.     It  was  pleasant  to  meet  Mr.  Reader  after  almost  forty  years  of 
separation  from  him. 

I  must  soon  close  this  letter.  The  last  mention  is  that  of  young  Samuel 
Hamilton.  He  used  to  come  to  church  at  Kingston  very  regularly  with  his 
little  family.  I  found  him  an  elder  in  the  church  at  Kingman,  Kan. 
Thomas  Lowe,  his  son-in-law,  lived  on  the  farm,  about  two  miles  from  town. 
Mr.  Samuel  Hamilton  was  an  intelligent.  Christian  gentleman.  Mrs.  Hamil- 
ton was  a  most  excellent  Christian  woman.  I  used  to  stay  at  their  house 
while  I  preached  at  Kingman  ;  he  died  while  I  supplied  the  church.  The 
attendance  at  the  funeral  was  very  large  ;  a  great  procession  followed  him  to 
the  grave.  Since  that,  his  dear  daughter  Jessie  went  to  join  him  and  many 
loved  ones  who  had  entered  into  rest. 

The  words  of  the  apostle  is  my  prayer,     Heb.  13:  20,  21. 

Yours  truly,  H.  M.  Shockley. 


Kingman,  Kan.,  December  13,  1898. 

From  the  "  wild  and  woolly  West  "  to  the  Presbyterian  church  of  King- 
ston, greeting  !  You  who  have  never  broken  loose  from  old  friendships  and 
associations  can  hardly  realize  the  wave  of  homesickness  which  overtakes 
the  wanderer  who  has  strayed  beyond  the  reach  of  these  pleasant  gatherings. 
I  think  it  is  such  as  a  child  feels  when  far  away  from  home  on  Thanksgiving. 
He  knows  the  festivities  are  going  on  in  the  old  homestead,  just  as  in  the 
past.     Though  we  cannot  be  with   you  in  person,  we  are  there  in  spirit. 

Imagination  pictures  the  whole  scene  —  the  kindly,  familiar  faces,  the 
old  pastor,  associate  and  friend  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  How  glad  I  should 
be  to  clasp  the  hands  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rankin  once  again,  as  well  as  of  many 
others  who  will  be  there  !  How  glad  to  hear  the  talks,  the  songs  and  the 
reminiscences  !  Last,  but  not  least,  to  partake  of  the  dinner  in  the  basement, 
a  dinner  for  which  the  earth  has  yielded  ber  richest  and  best ;  and  when  pre- 
pared by  cooks  of  rare  skill,  will  be  "  a  feast  fit  for  the  gods."  Those  big 
dinners  at  Kingston  have  disproved  the  theory  that  rich  foods  impair  diges- 
tion, produce  dyspepsia  and  all  its  kindred  ills.  For  have  not  scores  of  us 
made  triumphal  marches  from  one  big  dinner  to  another?  Yet  there  is  not 
a  more  healthful  people  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  nor  a  greater  number  who 
have  reached  their  allotted  time. 

As  we  could  not  be  present  to  hear  the  history  of  the  church,  we  did  the 
next  best  thing  — we  took  from  its  place  among  the  treasures  left  by  those 
who  have  passed  away  Father  Hamilton's  history,  written  in  1857,  and  read  it 
aloud  to  the  family.  In  this  day  they  had  no  thought  of  carpets,  or  fresco- 
ing, or  basements,  but  they  laid  a  foundation  which  I  believe  will  last  for 
many  generations.  Let  us  pray  that  their  posterity  may  build  walls  not  only 
beautiful,  but  as  lasting  as  the  foundation. 

With  kindest  regards  to  all,  I  will  say  farewell  and  good-bye. 

M.  A.  Hamii^Ton. 

Converse,  Ind.,  December  14,  1898. 
To  THE  Presbyterian  Church  of  Kingston,  Ind.: 

My  Dear  and  Much  Loved  Friends:  I  have  been  kindly  invited  to  be 
with  you  on  this  occasion,  and  regret  exceedingly  that  circumstances  are 
such  as  to  compel  me  to  decline  the  invitation,  with  thanks.     I  can  hardly 


INTERIOR  VIEW  OF  KINGSTON  CHURCH. 


—52— 

think  of  any  visit  that  would  give  me  more  real  pleasure  than  a  visit  to 
Kingston  at  this  time  and  under  the  present  circumstances.  I  look  back  to 
the  years  spent  with  you  as  among  the  happiest  years  of  my  life.  I  deem  it 
an  honor  to  have  been  superintendent  of  your  Sunday-school  and  leader  of 
your  choir,  and  to  have  been  intrusted  by  you  with  the  honorable  and  re- 
sponsible office  of  an  elder.  I  feel  that  the  years  spent  with  you  were  profit- 
able ones  to  me,  and  trust  they  were  not  altogether  unprofitable  to  the 
church  and  community.  Through  your  church  and  him  who  was  then  your 
pastor,  I  received  under  God  the  final  impulse  which  launched  me  into  the 
gospel  ministry,  for  which  I  have  ever  since  had  occasion  to  thank  God 
most  heartily.  So  you  will  believe  me  when  I  say  that  Kingston  church 
has  a  very  warm  place  in  my  heart. 

And,  now,  permit  me  to  congratulate  you  on  having  reached  the  seventy- 
fifth  anniversary  of  your  birth  as  a  church.  God  has  spared  you  to  a  good 
old  age,  and  made  you  a  blessing  to  your  community,  while  He  has  given 
you  daughters  and  granddaughters  in  the  other  Presbyterian  churches  of 
the  county.  Then  you  have  sent  out  a  goodly  number  to  become  identified 
with  other  churches,  and  there  help  carry  on  the  Master's  work.  You  have 
also  sent  forth  a  number  of  sons  to  be  preachers  of  the  everlasting  Gospel  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Some  of  these  have  done,  and  are  still  doing,  grand 
work  for  the  Master  and  for  the  mother  church. 

Think  of  the  good  accomplished  by  the  churches  which  have  grown 
from  yours,  and  by  the  workers  you  have  sent  out.  I  cannot  give  statistics 
for  others,  but  even  your  humble  servant,  the  writer,  has  been  permitted, 
by  God's  blessing,  to  welcome  some  500  into  the  fold.  Probablj^  others  of 
the  brethren  have  accomplished  far  more,  and,  for  the  thousands  blessed 
and  saved  through  the  instrumentality  of  all  these,  you  will  share  in  the  re- 
ward. As  you  think  of  the  good  already  accomplished,  and  what  is  likely 
to  be  the  final  result  of  the  train  of  influences  set  in  motion  by  this  church, 
have  you  not  reason  to  thank  and  bless  God  that,  seventy-five  years  ago,  he 
put  it  into  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  organize  the  Sand  Creek  Presbyterian 
church  ?  You  may  well  thank  Him  for  His  watchful  care  over  it,  for  the 
blessings  showered  upon  it,  and  for  the  blessings  carried  from  it  to  others. 
You  have  had  many  noble  men  and  women  among  you;  but,  as  in  fancy  I 
look  over  the  congregation,  I  miss  many,  oh,  so  many,  familiar  faces  of 
thirty-five  or  forty  years  ago,  and  am  constrained  to  say:  "The  fathers; 
where  are  they  ? ' ' 

Some  of  the  founders  of  this  church  had  passed  away  before  it  was  my 
privilege  to  know  it;  but  I  look  in  vain  for  most  of  the  elderly  fathers  and 
mothers  of  thirty-five  or  forty  years  ago- -the  Hamiltons,  the  Donnells,  the 
McCoys,  the  Hopkins,  and  others — who  were  then  the  old  people.  Most  of 
them  are  gone  to  the  church  above.  Their  mantles  have  fallen  to  their 
children.  Are  they  so  wearing  them  as  to  honor  their  parents'  church  and 
their  parents'  God?  May  God  help  the  present  generation  to  be  as  faithful, 
as  true,  as  devoted,  as  the  past;  yea,  even  to  surpass  the  fathers  and  the 
mothers  in  all  these  things.  You  are  rightly  striving  to  surpass  the  fathers  in 
arts,  science,  agriculture,  etc.;  why  not  determine,  by  God's  help,  to  be  bet- 
ter, more  zealous,  more  thoroughly  consecrated  Christians  and  church-work- 
ers than  even  your  fathers  and  mothers  were  ?  Why  should  not  the  church 
and  God  expect  you  to  accomplish  far  more  than  they  ? 


—53— 

My  prayer  is  that  the  Lord  will  help  you  all  to  be  faithful  and  successful 
in  doing  His  work;  that  this  church  may  grow  and  prosper  more  and  more, 
and  be  a  rich  source  of  blessing  to  all  coming  generations  while  time  shall 
last,  and  that  we  may,  each  one,  finally  hear  the  loving  Master's  voice  say: 
"Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant;  enter  into  the  joy  of  thy  L,ord." 
Yours  fraternally, 

Gko.  D.  Parker. 


I  love  Thy  kingdom,  Lord, 

The  house  of  Thine  abode. 
The  church  our  blest  Redeemer  saved 

With  His  own  precious  blood. 

I  love  Thy  church,  O  God  ! 

Her  walls  before  Thee  stand. 
Dear  as  the  apple  of  Thine  eye. 

And  graven  on  Thine  hand. 

For  her  my  tears  shall  fall, 
For  her  my  prayers  ascend  ; 

To  her  my  cares  and  toils  be  given. 
Till  toils  and  cares  shall  end. 

Beyond  my  highest  joy 

I  prize  her  heavenly  ways, 
Her  sweet  communion,  solemn  vows. 

Her  hymns  of  love  and  praise. 

Sure  as  Thy  truth  shall  last, 

To  Zion  shall  be  given 
The  brightest  glories  earth  can  yield, 

And  brighter  bliss  of  heaven. 


KINGSTON  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


